GOP leaders urge House to return from recess early

Republican congressional leaders on Monday tried to raise the stakes in the fight over the fiscal 2007 war supplemental appropriations bill by calling on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to bring the House back one week early from its Easter recess to work on the measure.

"Our troops need the funding and they need it soon," House and Senate Republican leaders in a letter released Monday. "The Senate is in session and ready to work.... Every day we don't fund our troops is a day their ability to fight is weakened."

The House is not due back from its two-week recess until next Monday. The letter was signed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., along with other GOP leaders.

Although the Pentagon's request for the funding has been pending since Feb. 5, "your leadership team chose to leave town for two weeks rather than complete work on this bill," the Republicans told Pelosi. "As a result, our troops have been put at risk."

A spokesman for Pelosi dismissed the letter as "a cheap political stunt" and said the Congressional Research Service has determined the Army could operate "well into July with funds the Army has already been provided."

A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that if President Bush vetoes the bill as expected, rather than accept its provisions mandating a troop withdrawal from Iraq, "he will be cutting off funds to our troops and committing them to an open-ended civil war."

The spokesman, Jim Manley, said Republican-led Congresses had taken longer to approve military supplemental spending bills. "Give me a break," he added.

The GOP attempt to pressure Pelosi is part of an effort coordinated with the White House to put the Democrats on the defensive for attaching Iraq troop pullout language to the bill and loading it up with extraneous spending items. In his radio address over the weekend, Bush accused Democrats of holding up the appropriations measure to make "political statements."

The Republican leaders said in Monday's letter that they were "especially troubled" that Pelosi had yet to appoint the House conferees needed to reconcile the House and Senate versions. The House bill is $124 billion, while the Senate passed a $123 billion bill. Both are well above President Bush's $103 billion request.