Senate Foreign Relations Committee Approves Biden resolution
The good news is that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has passed the Biden-Hagel-Levin-Snowe resolution by a vote of 12 ayes to 9 nays.
This means that a "clean" version of the bill will head to the Senate floor for debate. Sen. Biden (D-DE) promised that floor debate will begin this month and will not be delayed.
The bad news is that Sen. Hagel (R-NE) was the only Republican senator to vote in favor of the final version of the resolution during the committee markup session.
A lot of Republicans expressed their opposition to the troop increase and even to the war itself. But the fact that so many could not bring themselves to vote for a non-binding resolution shows the magnitude of the task ahead to convince Republicans that they have to vote to stop the war in Iraq.
If we are to avoid a narrow majority on a resolution opposing the troop escalation--something like 52-48 of the Senate floor--the new Warner-Collins-Nelson (Ben) resolution will have to merge with the Biden-Hagel-Levin-Snowe effort. This mating dance, as one person described it, has not really begun, but it is hoped that the unification can go forward quickly before floor action. There is some unhelpful language in the Warner resolution, and we should press our allies to eliminate these shortcomings within the Warner resolution.
If these two efforts are merged into a single piece of legislation, there is an excellent chance that a large number of Senators (60+) will vote in favor. This would be a stinging rebuke to Bush's Iraq policy and would set the stage for further bipartisan congressional efforts related to Iraq.
There were four amendments offered in Wednesday’s Committee markup. Chairman Biden pledged to oppose all four amendments, and he was true to his word, although he admitted that he supported some in concept. Biden did say more than once that the non-binding resolution will be followed by binding measures at some upcoming date, which he promised would be much sooner than six months from now.
The write-ups of the amendments that follow are not based on any actual text but on verbal descriptions by Senators, and may therefore contain inaccuracies:
Sen. Dodd (D-CT) offered as an amendment his bill (S. 308) which states that U.S. troop levels cannot exceed those of January 16, 2007, without prior congressional approval. The amendment failed 6 – 15.
Sen. Isakson (R-GA) offered an amendment opposing congressional efforts to reduce troop levels or cut off funding. His amendment failed by a vote of 8 – 13, with all Republicans except Hagel and Corker (R-TN) voting in favor (Corker voted against everything).
Sen. Coleman (R-MN) offered an amendment to strike the provision opposing the troop increase with additional language about the Iraqis taking charge and several other measures. The amendment failed 4 – 17.
Sen. Kerry (D-MA) offered an amendment conditioning American assistance to Iraq on a series of benchmarks. Kerry’s amendment lost by a voice vote.
These amendments are just a preview of the many amendments likely to be offered on the Senate floor by both supporters and opponents of the war.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee members: DEMOCRATS: CHAIR - Biden, Dodd, Kerry, Feingold, Boxer, Nelson (Fl), Obama, Menendez, Cardin, Casey, Webb REPUBLICANS: Lugar, Hagel, Coleman, Corker, Sununu, Voinovich, Murkowski, DeMint, Isakson, Vitter
