The Senate defied President George W. Bush, voting to convert half his US$20.3 billion Iraqi rebuilding plan into a loan, dealing the White House an embarrassing foreign policy setback.
Despite an administration lobbying blitz that in recent days involved Bush himself, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell and others, the Republican-run chamber voted 51 to 47 on Thursday for a bipartisan proposal making US$10 billion of the aid a loan.
"They rolled out all the heavy artillery they could find," said Senator John McCain, a Republican and one-time Bush rival who sided with the White House.
"Back home, people were asking for loans," Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee, said in explaining the vote.
But Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, a Democrat, said the roll call was a slap at Bush's policies in Iraq.
"The Senate sent a strong, bipartisan message to this administration: It must do more to ensure that America's troops and taxpayers don't have to go on shouldering this costly burden virtually alone," Daschle said.
The loan proposal was the most dramatic change lawmakers have made in the mammoth spending package that the president proposed on Sept. 7.
Its approval by the Senate marked the first congressional vote in opposition to Bush's policies in Iraq. It was also the latest of several setbacks that Congress has dealt him in recent months on issues including concentration of media ownership, new rules on overtime pay, and travel to Cuba.
Record deficits
The administration argued that loans would worsen Iraq's foreign debt, slow its recovery and hand a propaganda victory to America's enemies. But the vote underscored that with elections 13 months away, many lawmakers were more worried about vast new spending for foreign aid at a time of record federal deficits at home.
"It's very hard for me to go home and explain that we have to give US$20 billion to a country sitting on US$1 trillion worth of oil," said one loan supporter, Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.
The vote came as the House and Senate edged toward approval of similar US$87 billion measures to finance US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the reconstruction of both countries. The lion's share of both bills is about US$66 billion for US military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, funds over which there was little controversy.
More mayhem
Meanwhile, three US military policemen were killed and seven were wounded in a midnight clash at a Shiite Muslim cleric's headquarters in Karbala, the US command reported yesterday.
At least nine Iraqis were also killed, according to witnesses.
A spokesman for the force patrolling the Karbala area said 20 to 30 attackers were involved.
Another US soldier died when an explosive device blew up in the Baghdad, the US-led coalition said yesterday.
The deaths brought to 101 the number of Americans killed in combat since Bush declared major hostilities over on May 1.
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