Democrats prepare for Iraq funding bill

WASHINGTON, April 23 (UPI) -- Democrats who took control of the U.S. Congress by promising to scale back the U.S. involvement in Iraq will vote soon on a bill to keep funding the war.

The Christian Science Monitor reported that Democrats are preparing for the Congressional vote this week, and for the possibility that they don't have enough votes to override a presidential veto of an Iraq spending plan that includes a date to bring U.S. troops home.

Rep. James Moran, D-Va., told the newspaper that a group of 30 constituents recently asked him why he had voted to support funding another year of the war after he campaigned against it.

"It's a shame I had to disappoint the people who voted for me, because they are the ones who count in the end. But it was the most definitive statement against this war that the Congress has yet had.... It went as far as we could possibly go and still get 218 votes (for passage)," he told the Monitor.

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to pull U.S. combat troops out of Iraq by the end of August 2008. The U.S. Senate bill set a goal of March 2008.

President George W. Bush has said he will veto any bill that includes a timetable, and Republicans say they have the votes to sustain a veto.