Congress Drops Permanent Base Ban in War Appropriation

The talk about getting US troops out of Iraq is largely just talk. The Republican Congress just passed a $94.5 billion emergency spending bill, which includes $65.8 billion to continue waging wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both chambers passed language that would have prevented the Pentagon from spending any of it on permanent bases in Iraq. In the version that came out of conference committee, that restriction is gone.

In the original Senate version, the funding came with a string that would prevent the Pentagon from establishing “permanent United States military bases in Iraq,” or exercising “United States control over the oil infrastructure or oil resources of Iraq.” The House version spoke of prohibiting spending any of the funds for a military basing rights agreement with Iraq. In short, left to their own devices, both chambers mean it when they say “bring the troops home.”

When it came time to reconcile the two versions of the bill, though, the White House started twisting arms. According to Reuters,

Senate aides said Republican staffers removed the provisions from the bills before House and Senate negotiators convened this week in a late-night work session to write a compromise spending bill.

Wisconsin Rep. David Obey, the senior Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, tried to reinsert the language, but it was opposed by Rep. Jim Kolbe, the Arizona Republican responsible for foreign affairs portions of the spending bill.