Dems Tie Divisive Bill to VA Spending

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Dems Tie Divisive Bill to VA Spending
Associated Press | November 07, 2007


WASHINGTON - Congressional Democrats stumbled ahead Nov. 6 with a plan lumping the popular budget for veterans programs with a health and education bill that President Bush has promised to veto.

House Democratic leaders slated a vote on the House-Senate compromise bill in an apparent attempt to use the politically untouchable veterans budget to increase the vote tally for the health and education funding bill, a top Democratic priority that fell just short of a veto-proof margin this summer.

The plan was certain to unravel in the Senate, where Republicans were poised to use the rules to cleave the measure in two, setting the health and education bill on course to be vetoed by Bush without the veterans' money attached.

At the same time, efforts to pass the Veterans Affairs budget into law before Monday's Veterans Day holiday appeared to falter.

The White House weighed in, restating its promise to veto the labor and education bill, which contains $151 billion in discretionary spending, the portion of the budget passed each year by Congress. That's almost $10 billion more than sought.

"Funding for the nation's veterans should not be held hostage while Congress attempts to add billions in unrelated spending," said the White House veto statement.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,155699,00.html