Senate diverts $1.9 billion in Iraq war budget bill

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted Wednesday to divert some of the money President George W. Bush requested for the war in Iraq to instead increase patrols against illegal immigrants on the nation's borders and provide the Coast Guard with new boats and helicopters.\nAn amendment was adopted, 59-39, to cut Bush's Iraq request by $1.9 billion to pay for new aircraft, patrol boats and other vehicles, as well as border checkpoints and a fence along the Mexico border crossing near San Diego.\nLater, the Senate voted by a veto-proof 72-26 margin to kill an attempt by conservatives to cut the overall bill back to Bush's request -- just a day after the White House issued a toughly worded promise to veto the $106.5 billion bill unless it is cut back to below $95 billion.\nAppropriations Committee Chairman Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. -- the key architect of the bill -- is unhappy with the veto threat and easily beat back a move by Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., to kill $12 billion in add-ons such as $4 billion in farm aid, $1.1 billion for Gulf Coast fisheries and money for a much-criticized $700 million relocation of a Mississippi freight rail line.\nWhile the border security funds had broad support, Democrats and Republicans argued about whether the cuts to Pentagon war spending would harm troops in Iraq. The cuts, offered by Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., would trim Bush's request for the war by almost 3 percent but don't specify how.\nSen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., said Gregg's cuts would "take money from troop pay, body armor and even the joint improvised explosive device defeat fund. Now that is a false choice, and it is a wrong choice."\nGregg responded heatedly, arguing that the cuts eventually would come from other parts of the massive Pentagon budget rather than U.S. forces in Iraq.\n"To come down here and allege that these funds are going to come out of the needs of the people on the front lines in Iraq or Afghanistan is pure poppycock," he said.\nAn amendment by Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada to add the border security funds but not tap the Pentagon for them failed by a 54-44 vote.\nIn its veto statement, the White House said the bill contains too many items that are "unrelated to the war or emergency hurricane relief needs." It said a final House-Senate compromise "must remain focused on addressing urgent national priorities while maintaining fiscal discipline."\nThe bill is sure to be carved back in House-Senate negotiations next month, and Bush might very well not have to follow through on his veto promise.\nTo accommodate the White House's objections would require the Senate to shed numerous projects. That would represent a departure from the way a disaster aid bill was handled in December, when Congress added $12 billion in new spending Bush had not requested.\nEven as the White House raised the potential of a first-ever Bush veto, the administration asked the Senate Tuesday for $2.2 billion more to repair and strengthen levees in and around New Orleans. The request wouldn't add to the overall cost of the bill since it was accompanied by a decrease in Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster funds.\nThe White House acknowledges that FEMA coffers would have to be replenished again in the fall instead of next year under the proposal.\nBush insists that total spending in the bill be capped at his $92.2 billion request for Iraq and hurricane relief, though he is willing to accept an additional $2.3 billion in the bill to prevent an outbreak of avian flu. His February budget anticipated the funding, but the White House has been slow to follow up with a detailed request.