Emergency War Funding Wins Backing-House Caves On War Spending

[chlamor]

Emergency War Funding Wins Backing

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, March 4, 2005; Page A19

House Republican leaders overcame earlier concerns and decided yesterday to give President Bush most of the emergency war spending money he requested last month, including $600 million for a compound in Baghdad that will be the largest U.S. embassy in the world.

The leaders said they plan to approve all but $800 million of Bush's $81.9 billion request in emergency funding for Iraq, Afghanistan and the war on terrorism. They cut back dramatically on the foreign aid portion of the request, because they said some of the proposed spending was not for emergencies or was potentially wasteful.

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The money will pay for construction of a diplomatic compound that will include housing, a cafeteria, office space and defense support facilities. The new compound will help consolidate the 1,054 trailers in Iraq that house 3,693 employees under State Department authority. Many of them are working in a former palace of Saddam Hussein, with the ballrooms divided into thousands of plywood cubicle offices.

House leaders said Rice assured them that the embassy could be built in 24 months, but that the money was needed up front to get contractors to bid because of the danger involved. The United States has promised the Iraqi government that it will vacate the palace.

The committee funded virtually all of the requests for defense but chopped the money for foreign assistance from $5.6 billion to $3 billion. Most of the trims came from reconstruction and democracy projects for Afghanistan, including a law school, courthouses and industrial parks.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A5335-2005Mar3?language=printer

[Nickster]

1. Ok, this line made me spew Mountain Dew......They said wasteful LOL

They cut back dramatically on the foreign aid portion of the request, because they said some of the proposed spending was not for emergencies or was potentially wasteful.