<font color=brown>I guess some Republican senators care......at least the honest ones do!<font color=black>
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news-miner.com
Senator breaks ranks
By SAM BISHOP News-Miner Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON--Sen. Lisa Murkowski and a few other Republicans want to turn half of President Bush's proposed $20 billion Iraq reconstruction grant into a loan.
In addition to the Iraq aid, the bill carries about $66 billion in supplemental funding for the U.S. military's efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The loan versus grant question has dominated the congressional debate over a supplemental spending bill for the Iraq post-war and reconstruction expenses.
Most Republicans and President Bush want all the reconstruction aid to be a grant, saying anything short of that would slow the money's delivery and send the wrong message. The House Friday afternoon approved a grant-only bill.
But Murkowski and seven other Republicans joined most Democrats late Thursday night on the Senate floor in voting, 51-47, for a compromise amendment. It would grant $10 billion to Iraq but would offer the other $10 billion as a loan. Then, if other countries agreed to forgive 90 percent of the money that Iraq owes them, the U.S. could convert that $10 billion loan to a grant.
Murkowski said she voted for the compromise to pressure other countries, such as France, Germany and Russia, to forgive their loans to Saddam Hussein's government.
"It takes us back to the argument where we were months ago, in encouraging other countries to join us in this effort," Murkowski said.
The provision also reduces the risk that the new Iraqi government would try to pay off those old debts with U.S. grant money, said Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev.
"Once the (Iraqi) economy gets going, we shouldn't just pay back France, Germany, Russia, China and the rest of the countries" using U.S. taxpayer money, he said.
Murkowski said there may have been some other way to be certain the grant money would not go to old debt, but, if there was, it didn't surface as a viable proposal.
"There were many, many, many different ideas that were presented and this was what gained the necessary momentum," she said of the split loan and grant.
The administration was adamantly opposed, though.
"The administration was very, very clear in terms of their preference and, as Republicans, we truly want to support the president on this," she said.
The compromise was a way to support Bush, recognize the U.S. obligation to help Iraq and still install some safeguards on the spending, she said.
Most Republicans didn't see it that way. Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, for example, voted against the loan-grant split. Stevens is the lead sponsor of the Iraq supplemental bill and spent much of the past few days managing the floor effort to get it passed.
Oklahoma Republican Sen. Don Nickles, who also voted against the amendment, said senators had an honest disagreement.
"I have respect for them, I just think they're incorrect," he said of the eight Republican dissenters.
He also predicted that the loan language would not prevail in the conference committee named to work out differences with the House.
Ensign acknowledged that possibility.
"We're going to see what kind of leverage we can get to try to keep it in there, but obviously knowing it's going to be tough sledding," he said.
After splitting the $20 billion between grants and loans Thursday night, the Senate also cut the total back by $1.9 billion on Friday. It wasn't immediately clear how much would come out of the grant section and how much would come out of the loan.
In addition to Murkowski and Ensign, the other Republicans supporting Bayh's amendment were Sam Brownback of Kansas, Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado, Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine.
Four Democrats--Sens. Joseph Biden of Deleware, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Daniel Inouye of Hawaii and Zell Miller of Georgia--joined Republicans in voting against the amendment.
Murkowski and Stevens both voted for the final Senate bill, which passed 87-12 Friday afternoon.
Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, voted Friday for the House version, which has a similar dollar total. It passed 303-125.
Washington, D.C., reporter Sam Bishop can be reached at sbishop@newsminer.com or (202) 662-8721. |
