Senate To Vote Tomorrow On Cutting Off War Funding

[Bob Geiger]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced on the Senate floor today that he will bring the Feingold-Reid bill -- which will cut off funding for the Iraq war in less than a year -- to the floor for a vote tomorrow.

The bill, authored by the gutsy Russ Feingold (D-WI) and rapidly championed by Reid, stipulates that George W. Bush must begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq within 120 days of the bill's passage and that "no funds appropriated or otherwise made available under any provision of law may be obligated or expended to continue the deployment in Iraq of members of the United States Armed Forces after March 31, 2008."

“I am pleased to cosponsor Senator Feingold’s important legislation,” Reid said when the bill was introduced early last month. “I believe it is consistent with the language included in the supplemental appropriations bill passed by a bipartisan majority of the Senate. If the President vetoes the supplemental appropriations bill and continues to resist changing course in Iraq, I will work to ensure this legislation receives a vote in the Senate in the next work period.”

The vote on Feingold's legislation will provide the biggest gut-check of the year for all Senators and give Democrats in particular the opportunity to show just how much they side with the troops and the American people in ending the Iraq quagmire.

In addition to Feingold and Reid, the bill is currently cosponsored by the following Senators:

• Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
• Chris Dodd (D-CT)
• Tom Harkin (D-IA)
• Ted Kennedy (D-MA)
• John Kerry (D-MA)
• Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
• Bernie Sanders (I-VT)
• Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI)

Said Feingold last week: “With brave Americans fighting and dying for a failed policy in Iraq, members of Congress shouldn’t delay action to end this misguided war for weeks or even months just for the sake of political comfort."

Stay tuned…

Update: Senator Russ Feingold just released the following statement on the news that his important bill will come to a Senate vote on Tuesday: “I appreciate the Majority Leader’s work to bring up the Feingold-Reid legislation for a vote. The American people deserve to have the Senate go on record about whether or not it wants to end our misguided mission in Iraq and safely redeploy our brave troops.”