Portal:National Security and Foreign Policy (U.S.)/In the news


 * The House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a nonbinding resolution affirming the Armenian genocide against the objections of President Bush and numerous former secretaries of state and defense who warned that it could seriously harm U.S.-Turkey relations.


 * House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) threatened to hold up $190 billion in supplemental Iraq War funding unless the president acceded to demands for an exit strategy and simultaneously proposed a war surtax.


 * After the Sept. 4 release of the GAO report on progress in Iraq, which stated that only three of eighteen benchmarks had been met, Democrats in Congress used the report as evidence of flawed policy, while Republicans sought to discredit the report.


 * The House passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act on Aug. 5, in a vote of 394-13, which would fund the DoD for fiscal year 2008, but would not address funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.


 * The House passed an amendment on Aug. 4 to the FY 2008 DoD appropriations bill that would undo an implemented recommendation of the 9/11 commission to disclose the total intelligence budget to the general public.


 * After passing overwhelmingly in the House on July 31, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) blocked a Darfur divestment bill in the Senate.


 * The Senate unanimously passed the Wounded Warriors Act on July 25 with an included 3.5 percent pay increase.


 * Following an all night debate over troop withdrawal from Iraq, as expected, Senate Republicans successfully filibustered the Levin-Reed amendment to the Defense appropriations bill, in a 52-47 vote on July 18. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) then responded by temporarily setting aside the overall Defense Authorization bill until Republicans refrained from filibustering Iraq War measures.


 * Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) followed through with any earlier threat, holding an overnight debate on July 17 regarding the Levin-Reed amendment to the Defense appropriations bill which calls for a troop withdrawal from Iraq, following a Republican filibuster of the measure.


 * Sens. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) and John Warner (R-Va.) introduced an amendment to the FY2008 defense appropriations bill that would require the President to devise an exit strategy from Iraq within three months, recommending the implementation of a redeployment of troops in Iraq by the end of the year.


 * The Senate passed an amendment, on June 13, to the FY 2008 Defense Department authorization bill to double to $50 million the bounty on Osama bin Laden. The vote was 87-1.


 * On July 12, the House passed the Responsible Redeployment from Iraq Act, which would significantly reduce U.S. troop presence in Iraq by April 1, 2008, in a vote of 223-201.


 * An amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Department authorization bill offered by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) which would have increased the amount of time troops spent at home between deployments failed to garner the 60 votes necessary to close debate on Jul. 11.


 * Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) called for the withdrawal of American forces in Iraq, the latest GOP Members of Congress to break ranks with their Republican colleagues and the President over the war, in early July.


 * A bipartisan group of congressmen issued a letter to President Bush urging him to reconstitute the Iraq Study Group, in order to provide an independent perspective to compare with General Petreaus's report due in September, on Jun. 30.


 * Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) threatened to cancel the Senate's August recess if Senators did not resolve disputes and move forward on legislation implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission and tightening restrictions on ethics and lobbying.


 * Following remarks by Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) calling for an immediate change of course in Iraq, Republican Sens. John Warner (R-Va.), George Voivovich (R-Ohio), and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) responded favorably to Lugar's statement on June 26.


 * Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) began work in late June on an amendment to the FY 2008 Defense Department authorization bill that would close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay.


 * Senator John Kerry (D-Mass.) asked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in mid June to refrain from deporting an illegal immigrant married to an Army Specialist missing in action in Iraq.


 * Both the House and Senate passed on May 24 the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R.2206), which funds the Iraq War through September 2007 without a troop withdrawal deadline or timetable.


 * The House passed the FY 2008 Defense Department authorization on May 17 in a 397-27 vote.


 * The Senate failed to invoke cloture on May 16 on an amendment (S.AMDT.1098) by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to end all funding for the Iraq War and set a March 2008 deadline for troop withdrawal.


 * President Bush vetoed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 1591), which included a deadline for U.S. combat troop withdrawal from Iraq, on May 1.


 * On Apr. 26, Congress passed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Health, and Iraq Accountability Act of 2007 (H.R. 1591), which would establish a series of benchmarks for progress in the Iraq War and set a deadline for troop withdrawal of no later than April 1, 2008.


 * The Senate passed S.4, a bill similar to one passed in the House to implement many of the 9/11 commission recommendations, on March 13.


 * The Senate failed again to invoke cloture on Feb. 17 on a non-binding resolution opposing President Bush's proposed troop "surge" in Iraq.


 * The House passed a non-binding resolution sponsored by House Armed Services Committee Chair Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), which disapproved of President Bush's proposed troop "surge" in Iraq, on Feb. 16.


 * A cloture vote failed in the Senate on Feb. 5 on a compromise non-binding resolution, proposed by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), which opposed President Bush's troop "surge" in Iraq and required the president to submit a progress report on Iraq to Congress every 30 days.


 * The House passed a bill (H.R. 1) implementing the recommendations of the 9/11 commission on Jan. 10, as part of the new Democratic majority's "First 100 Hours" agenda.