Senate approves funding for Afghan troop increase
posted by Josiah Garber on June 11, 2010
in Politics, War & Peace
(Reuters) – The Senate approved funds Thursday to pay for President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan troop increase but rejected a demand that he submit a timetable to bring forces home.
The chamber’s top Democrats were split over an Afghan exit strategy, with some influential lawmakers backing the call for one, a division likely to raise hackles in the White House.
Their support could encourage other liberal Democrats who are pushing for a similar proposal in the House of Representatives, where many lawmakers are also under pressure before congressional elections in November.
The House is expected to take up its version of the war funds legislation next month.
Most of the $33 billion in war spending approved by the Senate is to finance the 30,000 troop “surge” in Afghanistan that Obama announced in December, although some of it covers expenses in Iraq.
An additional $4 billion is for the State Department to fund the “civilian surge,” bringing economic aid to Afghanistan and its neighbor, Pakistan. The new money is in addition to about $130 billion Congress already approved for Afghanistan and Iraq for this year — and over $300 billion since 2001 just for the war in Afghanistan.