Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=10-15-03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=CONGRESS IRAQ (L only)

NUMBER=2-308644

BYLINE=DEBORAH TATE

DATELINE=CAPITOL HILL

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: Republican leaders in the U-S House and Senate say both chambers of Congress are expected to vote on President Bush's 87 billion dollar funding request for Iraq and Afghanistan by the end of the week. Correspondent Deborah Tate has the latest on where the legislation stands.

TEXT: A number of lawmakers, concerned about the growing U-S deficit, are offering amendments that would make the part of the funding for rebuilding Iraq a loan, not a grant as the Bush administration is requesting.

Under various proposals, the loan would be repaid with future Iraqi oil revenues.

One Democratic amendment has already been defeated in the Senate, but in the House, Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, plans to offer his own:

/// ROHRABACHER ACTUALITY ///

If we are going to give 18-point-six billion dollars to oil-rich Iraq, let's get a repayment so our people do not have to bear that burden and our children repay this debt.

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While the House bill calls for 18-point-six billion dollars in reconstruction money, the Senate bill offers 20-point-three billion dollars in such funding.

The Bush administration says loaning the money would send the wrong signal ahead of next week's international donor conference on Iraq, to be held in Madrid.

It is an argument echoed by Congressman Norm Dicks, a Democrat from the state of Washington, who just returned from a visit to Iraq:

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If we are going to ask the rest of the world to make grants, the Japanese, the Germans, the British, how can we do that if we say we are going to lend them (the Iraqis) the money?

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Opponents of the loan idea argue the plan would feed suspicions that the United States wants to control Iraq's oil reserves. They also say Iraq is already too burdened by debt.

In a related matter, the Senate approved (by voice vote) an amendment that would prohibit any of the reconstruction money from being used to repay Iraq's debt. France and Germany, staunch opponents of the U-S-led war in Iraq, are among those countries that are owed money by Iraq.

Senator John Ensign, a Nevada Republican, sponsored the measure:

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I think it is an important amendment to say to the American people that their tax dollars are not going to pay back the Frances, the Germanys, the Russias, the various countries that loaned money to this brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein.

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// OPT /// In a separate vote, the Senate unanimously approved a measure that will require the U-S led coalition in Iraq to provide Congress with an accounting of all appropriated U-S funds, as well as Iraqi oil revenues and money from donor nations. Under the amendment sponsored by Senator Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, the coalition would be required to submit quarterly reports to Congress beginning January first of next year.

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If the constitutional power of the purse means anything at all, it must at least require that the people's elected representatives here in Congress have a right to know how the government is spending the nation's treasure.

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Once the House and Senate pass their versions of the funding package, differences will have to be worked out before a final bill is sent to President Bush for his signature.

Republican leaders in both chambers hope to do that before the international donor conference opens October 23rd. (signed)

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