Iraq War Spending

On July 11, 2007, the U.S. Senate took a series of votes on various measures related to the war in Iraq.

Download PDF version of vote tally and text of the amendments.

Download Word version of vote tally and text of the amendments.

The amendments included:

• an attempt to require that U.S. Armed Forces returning from Iraq be permitted to be at their home base for at least as long as the length of their tour in Iraq before being deployed back to Iraq.
• an attempt to limit the length of the deployment of Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve units in Iraq to 12 months and of Marine Corps and Marine Corps Reserve units to 7 months in Iraq.
• a measure to require a report to Congress on the involvement of Iran in Iraq.
• a measure that would state that Armed Forces returning from Iraq SHOULD be allowed a minimum of 12 months at home before being deployed back to Iraq, but it did not require that 12 months elapse before being deployed back to Iraq.

House Voting Records

A table that tracks the key votes taken in the House between March 2007 and May 2007 on the Iraq – Afghanistan war supplemental spending bill. A quick explanation of the votes precedes the table. You can search by State or by representative name. The three most significant votes for determining legislative strategy are the vote on H.R. 1591, the vote on H.R. 2237 McGovern Bill and the vote on H.R. 2206 Final.

>> View House Voting Records

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Senate Voting Records

This table tracks the votes taken in the Senate between March 2007 and May 2007 on the Iraq – Afghanistan war supplemental spending bill. A quick explanation of the votes precede the table. You can search by State or by representative name.

>> View Senate Voting Records

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By Jeff Leys

October 7, 2007
Download PDF

Congress will likely act before the end of October on at least a portion of the $192 billion that President Bush is seeking to fund the Iraq - Afghanistan war for Fiscal Year 2008 (which runs from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008). Legal and extralegal (civil disobedience / civil resistance) lobbying should take place between now and the end of October.

You can find out who your Representative and Senators are at the website Congress.org, along with phone numbers and contact information.

Following is a likely legislative timeline that Congress may follow.

Download Q & A
PDF file - Q & A with charts
PDF file — charts only

February 14, 2008

Congress will soon begin consideration of an additional $102.4 billion in supplemental funding for the Iraq – Afghanistan wars. On February 13, Representative Jack Murtha (Chair of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee) announced that he intends to produce a final version of the latest 2008 Iraq – Afghanistan war supplemental spending bill by the end of February. After this it will be considered by the full House Appropriations Committee and then go to the full floor of the House for a vote. The Senate similarly is beginning to develop its version of the latest war supplemental spending bill.

The House bill will be developed behind closed doors. No hearings are scheduled between now and the end of February to discuss the bill in the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. It is not known when the final war supplemental spending bill will be made available to the public. It may well end up that the final supplemental spending bill is presented as a “fait accompli”—an accomplished act—on the floors of the House and of the Senate only hours before the vote is to take place. In May 2007, the final spending bill was not released to the public until about 6 a.m. on the morning of the vote. In December 2007, the funds for the Iraq war were tucked into a Senate amendment to an omnibus appropriations bill—an amendment available to the public only after it was submitted on the floor of the Senate by Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

It is also highly unlikely that any language on partial troop withdrawal will be included in the supplemental spending bill this time around. Representative Murtha stated that he will recommend the inclusion of some form of withdrawal language in the bill, though stopped short of stating partial withdrawal language will in fact be included in the bill. However, such language was stripped out of the final version of war supplemental spending bills that passed Congress in May 2007 and in December 2007.

Therefore, it is critical that phone calls and lobbying—both legal and extralegal civil disobedience—be on-going at the offices of Representatives and Senators with the message being simple: Vote against any additional funds for the Iraq war.

You can contact your Representative and Senators via the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121.

You can find out your Representative’s and Senators’ direct contact information by visiting the website of Contacting Congress

Following is a “Question and Answer” piece on the status of the Iraq – Afghanistan war supplemental as well as two charts that summarize the components of the war spending request.

November 14, 2007

The Democratic Party’s Barbershop Quartet strikes again-caving in marvelous manner on the Iraq war. “You know the nearer your destination, the more you slip sliding away,” sang Simon and Garfunkel.

If ending the Iraq war is our destination, then Pelosi, Obey, Murtha and the Democrats are slip sliding us all further away.

Today, November 14, the House will vote on H.R. 4156-the newest Iraq - Afghanistan war supplemental spending bill. In the finest tradition of democracy, the text of the bill was not publicly available until last night.

October 7, 2007
Download PDF

Congress will likely act before the end of October on at least a portion of the $192 billion that President Bush is seeking to fund the Iraq - Afghanistan war for Fiscal Year 2008 (which runs from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008). Legal and extralegal (civil disobedience / civil resistance) lobbying should take place between now and the end of October.

You can find out who your Representative and Senators are at the website Congress.org, along with phone numbers and contact information.

Following is a likely legislative timeline that Congress may follow.

By Jeff Leys
Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence
jeffleys@vcnv.org
May 8, 2007

Download as Word Document
Download as PDF
MAY 17: Audio Discussion of Iraq and Afghanistan Supplemental Spending 2008

Don’t lose the forest for the trees.

Congress is now considering President Bush’s request for an additional $145 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through September 30, 2008. The House Armed Services Committee is including these funds in the Defense Authorization Bill for Fiscal Year 2008, which runs from October 1, 2007 to September 30, 2008. Of this, $142 billion will be for the military and $3 billion will be for the State Department.

President Bush submitted this request on February 5, the same date on which he requested $93 billion for the wars for this year’s budget and $482 billion for the regular baseline military budget for FY 2008 (a 62% increase over the baseline military budget in 2001).

Actions Needed to End Iraq War Funding
April 22, 2007

Please call your Representative and Senators and tell them to vote against the supplemental spending bill to continue funding the Iraq war. You can call the Congressional switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 and be connected.

Prepare for civil disobedience in June and July at the offices of Representatives and Senators who refuse to publicly commit to vote against any additional funding for the Iraq war for Fiscal Year 2008 (which begins on October 1).