Washington, Oct 18: The Republican-dominated US Senate has overwhelmingly approved President George W. Bush's supplemental budget request for 85 billion dollars to finance military deployment and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senate's 87-12 vote followed a 303-125 approval of the measure earlier yesterday in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives, with 74 Democrats crossing party lines to vote for the bill.
The Senate late Thursday night had watered down Bush's request with an amendment requiring Baghdad to pay back half of the 20.3 billion dollars earmarked for Iraqi reconstruction. Prior to passing the bill, it trimmed another 1.9 billion dollars with an amendment cutting expenses it deemed unnecessary, including creation of a postal code system for Iraq and construction of a 50,000-dollar-a-bed prison.
The House voted down amendments that would have created reconstruction loans to Iraq. However, it did make cuts totalling 1.9 billion dollars to the reconstruction funds, but transferred the money to the military side, and to Afghan aid and indemnification of hurricane Isabel damage to military bases on the US East Coast. Bureau Report