By CongressDaily staff
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, July 9, 2007

The Senate will turn this week to the FY08 defense authorization bill, providing Democrats and Republicans alike a platform from which to debate a multitude of proposals to change U.S. military policy in Iraq.

Several lawmakers are lining up amendments on the war, including language expected from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich., that would require the military to begin to draw down the size of its deployed force within 120 days. The amendment also would call for a withdrawal of most combat troops by April 2008.

The Reid-Levin amendment will be one of several offered by Democrats to address the war. Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., might introduce their bill that would repeal the 2002 Iraq war authorization during the lengthy floor debate on the massive defense measure.

And Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., has said he will sponsor language that would set minimum lengths of time between deployments to the war zone. Webb's language would mandate that active-duty troops receive as much time at home as they served overseas.

Reservists, meanwhile, would receive three times as much time off from active duty as they spent deployed.

Republicans, too, are expected to offer their own amendments to address the war. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., the former chairman of the Armed Services Committee and one of the chamber's most respected voices on defense issues, has said he is working on his own Iraq language as a substitute to the Democratic language.

The debate on the bill comes amid recent defections from three senior Senate Republicans, who have called for changes in military policy in Iraq.

The three Republicans -- foreign relations ranking member Richard Lugar of Indiana, and Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Pete Domenici of New Mexico -- are likely to all figure prominently in the defense authorization debate.

Indeed, Domenici has voiced his support for a bipartisan bill that calls for the implementation of the 79 recommendations offered by the Iraq Study Group.

The bill is sponsored by Sens. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. The Salazar-Alexander measure, which might be offered during the defense authorization debate, is intended to create conditions that would allow the military to significantly reduce the size of its forces in Iraq by next spring.

In the House, the FDA bill reauthorizing agency programs and overhauling its drug safety system is on the suspension calendar Wednesday.

CBO estimated Friday the bill will cost $728 million to implement through 2012. Some of the cost will be offset by user fees, CBO said, but the National Institutes of Health will bear the brunt of spending at $432 million for pediatric research.

The House will also consider legislation aimed at making higher education more affordable. House Republicans are gearing up for a fight by seeking to increase funding for Pell grants by shifting $1.5 billion from new entitlement spending authorized for institutions -- including historically black colleges.

Education and Labor ranking member Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., filed an amendment with the Rules Committee last week to accomplish the reshuffling of funds.

Overall, according to Democratic committee aides, the bill would authorize $18 billion in aid to students.

That includes Pell grant funding as well as initiatives to make student loans more affordable by halving interest rates on loans, increasing borrowing limits, limiting repayments to 15 percent of income and allowing loan forgiveness of up to $5,000 for military personnel and civilian first responders.

The House is scheduled to close out the week with consideration of legislation to overhaul the Section 8 housing voucher program.

The bill, sponsored by Financial Services Housing Subcommittee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would make several changes to the HUD program that issues housing vouchers to 2 million low-income people.

The bill contains provisions that would give housing authorities more flexibility in renting to poor and homeless persons and allow vouchers in certain cases to be used for purchasing manufactured homes on leased land.

The Senate meets today at 2 p.m. for morning business and at 3 p.m. begins consideration of the FY08 defense authorization bill.

The House is not in session today. On Tuesday the House meets at 2 p.m. to consider 12 suspension bills, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. The House meets at 10 a.m. Wednesday and Thursday and 9 a.m. Friday to consider suspension bills, higher education legislation and Section 8 housing legislation.

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