House Approves War Funding Bill With Unemployment, GI Benefits

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - The House approved a $165 billion legislation to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on Thursday with no conditions on how the White House would use the appropriation.

The provisions to fund the wars was passed by a vote of 268-155. Another set of legislation for domestic spending was approved, 416-12.

The war funding portion will be effective until June 2009 and excludes Democrat-backed restrictions such as limiting military interrogation techniques to those listed in the Army field manual.

The domestic spending portion consists of a GI bill with a Republican-backed provision to allow veterans to transfer their educational benefits to family members. It also extends benefits for the unemployed for 13 weeks in all states while keeping the requirement that workers be employed for at least 20 weeks to qualify for benefits. Republicans won a small victory with the removal of a Democratic plan to provide an additional 13 weeks to states with high unemployment rates. It also includes $2.6 billion in disaster relief for the Midwest.

The bill's approval comes a week after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said lawmakers would pass the supplemental before the chamber takes its Fourth of July recess.

"We were able to come to this compromise because we were ready," Pelosi said on the floor, according to an official transcript. "I'm very pleased that this legislation has the GI Bill. Finally, it became clear that it was what we had to do, what we owed our young people; we say thank you to them by sending them to college."

"We owe our troops more than sending them into war on a false premise, without the equipment and training they need, without a plan for success, without a strategy to leave," she added. "This war has not made the region more stable; it has not made our country safer; and it has undermined our capability to protect the American people. It should come to an end safely, honorably, responsibly, and soon."