WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- The Bush administration's request Tuesday for $74.7 billion in funding for the war in Iraq faces tough scrutiny by lawmakers. While likely to approve the request, appropriators are wary of handing Bush a "blank check" for the next six months.
But despite concerns that the administration is cutting congressional appropriators out of the process, key Democrats and Republicans promised to approve the request quickly.
"I will move the president's supplemental request through the House as quickly as I can because I know the importance of this bill to the men and women of our military. I will keep it as close to the president's request as possible and I will resist any efforts to add extraneous provisions," said Rep. Bill Young, R-Fla., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.
"The costs are now being incurred for the war, so they've got to be paid," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-S.D., ranking Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee.
Young promised to hold a full committee markup of the proposal next week and promised to meet the April 11 deadline for passage that the president has requested.
But two prominent Democratic appropriators are chafing at the request because it seems to bypass the normal appropriations process.
"We need to know exactly where this money is going," said Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee. "With all due respect to (Defense Secretary) Don Rumsfeld's brilliance, he has not been given Congress's power of the purse, and it's our job to know exactly what the purpose of this spending is."
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.V., an outspoken critic of the war with Iraq, also demanded additional information about the costs of the war. The current estimate -- which runs for only six months -- makes no estimates on the expected costs of rebuilding Iraq should the military campaign to remove Saddam Hussein succeed.
"We have a duty to the American people to tell up front what is expected, what the costs are in terms of lives and in terms of dollars," he said. "This bill is just a down payment," he said.
