The Senate speaks on Iraq

[im10ashus]

The Senate took up two measures today, both of which require the administration to provide lawmakers with extensive quarterly reports on progress in Iraq and call on the White House to lay out its strategy for ending the war. One passed.

The first vote was on a Democratic amendment that would have pressed Bush to outline a timetable for a phased withdrawal from Iraq. Ultimately, 38 Dems, one independent (Jim Jeffords of Vermont), and one Republican (Linc Chafee of Rhode Island) voted for it, on route to its 58-40 defeat.

The second vote went better.

The Senate voted 79-19 for a resolution saying the next calendar year "should be a period of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty, with Iraqi security forces taking the lead for the security of a free and sovereign Iraq, thereby creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq."

The Republican resolution, sponsored by Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner of Virginia, largely mirrored a Democratic resolution, except for Democrats' key requirement for a withdrawal plan.

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