A House of Representatives measure blending money for US President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan troop surge with last-ditch moves by governing Democrats to salvage their faltering jobs agenda faces an uphill climb in the Senate.
After long delays, House Democrats forced through the approximately US$80 billion measure on Thursday night as their final act before leaving for a weeklong Fourth of July break.
However, the Senate passed a significantly slimmer measure in May and it will take weeks to reconcile the two measures.
It’s just the latest disconnect between the battling House and Senate, which have also been unable to approve an extension of unemployment benefits and other economic stimulus steps.
FILIBUSTERS
Repeated Senate filibusters are chiefly to blame, but Democratic leaders in the House and Senate also disagree on strategy and tactics and long-simmering tensions have reached boiling point.
House leaders went ahead with the measure on Thursday despite knowing they have only limited leverage in forcing the Senate to accept more than US$20 billion in domestic spending add-ons, such as US$10 billion in grants to school districts to avoid teacher layoffs, US$5 billion for Pell Grants to low-income college students and US$700 million to improve security along the US-Mexico border.
The White House weighed in with a veto threat over US$800 million in cuts to education programs that would be used to help pay for the additional domestic spending under a “pay-as-you-go” culture that the administration itself advocates.
The measure is anchored by nearly US$60 billion passed by the Senate that blends US$30 billion for 30,000 extra troops in Afghanistan with money for disaster aid, foreign aid and disability benefits for Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
The House measure will receive little support from Senate Republicans, who have the votes to filibuster it, according to Senator Thad Cochran, a senior Republican whose support was central to Senate passage.
UNRELATED SPENDING
House Republicans supportive of the Afghanistan effort voted against the measure, angered that Democrats were using the must-pass legislation to try to advance unrelated spending.
“The Democrat majority is treating this troop funding bill like a cash cow for their election-year wish-list,” said Republican Representative Jerry Lewis.
Top Democrats such as Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey and Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted on adding the domestic funding items, viewing the war funding bill as their last, best shot at resuscitating the party’s faltering jobs agenda.
The money was critical to winning support from Democrats frustrated over deepening Senate gridlock that has killed, among other ideas, US$24 billion in aid to cash-starved states to help governors avoid tens of thousands of layoffs.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been agitating for the war money, requested in February, but the real deadline for Congress isn’t until recess next month.
The delays in approving the war funds will mean the Pentagon will have to employ burdensome book-keeping maneuvers to maintain the war effort.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
Two former Chilean ministers are among four candidates competing this weekend for the presidential nomination of the left ahead of November elections dominated by rising levels of violent crime. More than 15 million voters are eligible to choose today between former minister of labor Jeannette Jara, former minister of the interior Carolina Toha and two members of parliament, Gonzalo Winter and Jaime Mulet, to represent the left against a resurgent right. The primary is open to members of the parties within Chilean President Gabriel Boric’s ruling left-wing coalition and other voters who are not affiliated with specific parties. A recent poll by the
TENSIONS HIGH: For more than half a year, students have organized protests around the country, while the Serbian presaident said they are part of a foreign plot About 140,000 protesters rallied in Belgrade, the largest turnout over the past few months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government to call early elections. The rally was one of the largest in more than half a year student-led actions, which began in November last year after the roof of a train station collapsed in the northern city of Novi Sad, killing 16 people — a tragedy widely blamed on entrenched corruption. On Saturday, a sea of protesters filled Belgrade’s largest square and poured into several surrounding streets. The independent protest monitor Archive of Public Gatherings estimated the
Irish-language rap group Kneecap on Saturday gave an impassioned performance for tens of thousands of fans at the Glastonbury Festival despite criticism by British politicians and a terror charge for one of the trio. Liam Og O hAnnaidh, who performs under the stage name Mo Chara, has been charged under the UK’s Terrorism Act with supporting a proscribed organization for allegedly waving a Hezbollah flag at a concert in London in November last year. The rapper, who was charged under the anglicized version of his name, Liam O’Hanna, is on unconditional bail before a further court hearing in August. “Glastonbury,
RSS