Senate adds Iraq war funding to spending bill

The Senate added $70 billion for Iraq war funding to the $516 billion omnibus spending bill Dec. 18. The House this afternoon passed the Senate's version of the omnibus bill and it now goes to President Bush to be signed into law.Senators amended the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which funds all federal departments, except the Defense Department, in addition to the wars in Afghanistan and now Iraq, by a vote of 70 to 25. The omnibus spending bill that the House passed Dec. 17 included $31 billion for military operations but limited those funds to operations only in Afghanistan. The amendment is critical to the bill’s final passage in the Senate and then getting President Bush to sign it into law. “Let me be crystal clear: If this amendment does not pass in its current form, the underlying bill does not become law,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who introduced the amendment. Bush threatened to veto the bill if it didn’t include McConnell’s amendment.Without passing the bill, the government’s temporary funding would expire Dec. 21, when the deadline for the current continuing resolution would pass.