A controversial measure that would have choked off funding for US military operations in Iraq after March 31, 2008 was blocked by the US Senate on Wednesday.

 

The legislation, put forward by Democratic Senator Russell Feingold and two other Democrats, was turned down by a vote of 29-67, far short of the 60 votes it needed to go ahead.

 

Forty-seven Republicans, 19 Democrats and Connecticut Independent Joseph Lieberman voted against the measure.

 

The legislation would have put President George W. Bush under pressure to begin removing US forces within 120 days and after the March 31st deadline would have cut all funding in Iraq – excepting for specific anti-terrorist operations, security of US facilities and personnel and the training and outfitting of Iraqi security forces.

 

Among those senior Democrats opposing the legislation was Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the influential Armed Services Committee. He supported the rejection, saying that "we don't want to send the message to the troops" that Congress does not support them by withholding funds.

 

The proposal comes as one of four upon which the Senate will vote, each of which will seek to offer a blueprint for the war, which has dragged on to its fifth year and claimed the lives of over 3,300 US soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis. To highlight bipartisanship, two of the proposals have come from Democrats and two from Republicans.

 

The sister statement to Feingold’s proposal would give the Bush administration the funds it asked for but would set a strict timetable, setting a March 31 deadline for the withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq. However, the proposal was withdrawn after a White House veto threat. The proposal would also have imposed stringent punishments on the Iraqi government if the body failed to meet set political benchmarks.

 

The Senate also turned down a Republican proposal, sponsored by Senator John Warner, that sought to create political and security goals for the Iraqi government. In a similar bent to its Democratic equivalent, this proposal would have reduced US reconstruction funds to Iraq, should those goals be missed.

 

The only piece of legislation accepted by the Senate was nonbinding resolution, which called for a war spending bill to be passed before Memorial Day.

 

The US House passed legislation last week funding the Iraq war on two separate, 60-day installments.

 

The Democratic-led Congress threatened an ideological clash with Bush administration last month when it passed its latest war spending bill. This bill asked the White House to start a progressive troop withdrawal by October 1, with a goal of ending US combat operations there by next March, but President Bush used his executive veto to annul the bill.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 17, 2007)