Congress Stalled on Troop-Hurricane Bill

[Eugene]

Congress Stalled on Troop-Hurricane Bill

By ANDREW TAYLOR
The Associated Press
Wednesday, May 24, 2006; 9:17 PM

WASHINGTON -- Congressional Republicans will miss a Memorial Day deadline set
by the White House to complete work on a huge bill to supply new funds for troops
overseas and hurricane victims at home.

Even though closed-door talks between top House and Senate negotiators had produced
a series of tentative agreements, obstacles such as President Bush's $1.9 billion
request for a new border security initiative are proving too difficult to resolve
before Congress leaves Friday for a weeklong Memorial Day recess.

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Just last week, the White House sent lawmakers a letter saying that it is "critical"
that the measure _ which ballooned from Bush's $92.2 billion request to almost $109
billion during its consideration by the Senate _ be enacted before the end of May.

Failure to do so "would seriously impact" military operational accounts, delay re-
equipping and preparation of units deployed to Iraq and slow training and equipping
of Iraqi security forces, according to the May 18 letter from Clay Johnson,
the acting budget director for the White House.

<snip>

Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/24/AR2006052402214.html