Pelosi tests might with war funding bill

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WASHINGTON, April 20 (UPI) -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has stood up to the White House on several issues, but a key test comes in the pending war funding measure, lawmakers say.

Pelosi opposed President George Bush by refusing to vote on a warrantless surveillance bill and blocking a fast-track vote on a U.S.-Colombian free-trade agreement, but her resolve will be challenged in the next two weeks when lawmakers debate the war funding bill, The Washington Post reported Sunday.

The Post said Pelosi took advantage of the changing political climate in Washington as Bush winds down his last term in office, but the war funding measure could be quite contentious as the sagging U.S. economy puts any foreign spending under additional scrutiny.

Many Democratic and Republican leaders said Bush won't get the $108 billion in war funding without a fight, but some conservative Republicans warn Pelosi could lose this battle, the Post said.

"The war spending bill will go just exactly the way they have gone before," said House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo. "The Democrats will fund the troops. We're not going to do any additional spending as long as the president holds the line, and they will be right back where they were."