VOA常速英语2007-US Democrats, Republicans Haggle Over Iraq, Gove

By Dan Robinson
Washington
23 October 2007

Democrats¹ and Republicans in the U.S. Congress remain far apart over a number of contentious² issues, including uncompleted government spending bills, President Bush's request for more money for military operations in Iraq and legislation to revise laws on warrantless electronic surveillance under President Bush's anti-terrorist measures. VOA's Dan Robinson reports from Capitol Hill.

Continuing disagreements were apparent in news conferences and briefings by the Democratic and Republican leaderships in the House and Senate.

House Democratic leaders say they plan to bring two bills back to the House floor, a children's health bill vetoed by President Bush, and controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) legislation that has been the focus of negotiations³ with the White House.

On government operations, which are running at 2007 budget levels under what is called a continuing resolution, Congress has not yet passed numerous annual appropriations⁴ bills with time running short in the congressional session.

President Bush added to the budget battle new request for $46 billion in new funds for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which is in addition to $460 billion in regular Pentagon spending.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called on majority Democrats not to, in her words, play politics with war funding, urging Congress to approve the President's additional funding request that would bring 2008 supplemental spending to just over $196 billion. "The president is going to call on them to get this work done before they leave for the holidays. It is the least they can do for the troops and hopefully the troops families will know that by the holidays they are going to be taken care of." she said.

Democratic appropriations chairmen Congressman⁵ David Obey and Senator Robert Byrd have vowed⁶ to scrutinize⁷ every part of the president's request.

House majority leader Steny Hoyer criticized the president Tuesday, saying Democrats will continue to press for substantial changes in White House Iraq policy.

Congressman Rahm Emanuel used a news conference to contrast spending on Iraq with children's health care needs. "Ten billion dollars a month for the war. Ten billion dollars a month. Two years ago it was five billion. For 41 days for the cost of the war, 10 million children in America would get their health care for a full year. For one month, for the cost of the war, 7.2 million American children would get their full health care for a year."

Republicans have tried to label Democrats as irresponsible in their handling of legislation, including the Democrat-crafted electronic surveillance measure and children's health.

While he agrees that lawmakers should closely examine war spending requests, Senate minority whip Trent Lott blames Democrats for the failure of Congress to get bills to the president.

"I would urge the Democratic leadership to schedule these conferences, send these bills to the president, and schedule other appropriations bill for consideration in the Senate. We have the time, we could to it, but we apparently⁸ are not going to have many opportunities to even take up the remaining appropriations bills," he said.

Lott says that means Congress will likely have to come up with one large bill known as an omnibus, to fund government operations for the 2008 fiscal⁹ year, a measure the president may end up vetoing as he has threatened to do with individual appropriations measures that exceed his budgetary limit.

Democratic leaders say they are prepared to address some concerns the president had when he rejected the children's health measure.

Congressman Hoyer says House Democrats intend to move the electronic surveillance bill forward, regardless of the status of negotiations on a Senate version between lawmakers there and the White House.

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

3 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

4 appropriations   

n.挪用（appropriation的复数形式）

参考例句：

• More commonly, funding controls are imposed in the annual appropriations process. 更普遍的作法是，拨款控制被规定在年度拨款手续中。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法
• Should the president veto the appropriations bill, it goes back to Congress. 假如总统否决了这项拨款提案，就把它退还给国会。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

5 Congressman   

n.（美）国会议员

参考例句：

• He related several anecdotes about his first years as a congressman.他讲述自己初任议员那几年的几则轶事。
• The congressman is meditating a reply to his critics.这位国会议员正在考虑给他的批评者一个答复。

6 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

7 scrutinize   

n.详细检查，细读

参考例句：

• Her purpose was to scrutinize his features to see if he was an honest man.她的目的是通过仔细观察他的相貌以判断他是否诚实。
• She leaned forward to scrutinize their faces.她探身向前，端详他们的面容。

8 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

9 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。