Reid calls for vote on training Syrian rebels

ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the run-up to a high-stakes presidential address, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called Wednesday for a quick pre-election vote to approve the administration’s request to train and equip Syrian rebels fighting terrorists seeking an Islamic state in the Middle East.

House Republicans offered no commitment, and despite a personal plea from President Barack Obama, left the issue out of a must-pass spending bill due for the vote in the next few days.

“It’s clear to me that we need to train and equip Syrian rebels and other groups in the Middle East that need some help,” Reid, D-Nev., said Wednesday. “The president has tried to get that from us and we should give it to him. That’s one way of helping to build an international coalition.”

Emerging from a briefing with administration officials, Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Obama called him Tuesday night. Rogers remained steadfast, saying he opposes including the Syria provision in the spending bill because it is a major policy shift that requires more careful consideration and time for debate.

Rogers said he would push for a vote Thursday on the spending bill without the Syria language.

“In good faith, we’re trying to get briefed up on what the request is and it’s a complicated big-time change in policy that I hate to see us attach to a continuing resolution at the very last minute,” Rogers told reporters. “This is a complex, complicated policy change that needs to be fully vetted here in the Congress.”

The lawmaker said Congress could vote on the Syrian provision separately during the abbreviated September schedule, before lawmakers leave to campaign for November midterm elections.

House Republicans planned to meet on Thursday morning to discuss the next steps.

Obama’s speech was seen as crucial to swaying uncertain lawmakers.

Officials said Obama specifically asked top lawmakers for the new authority as they drafted a sweeping spending bill to keep the government open past the end of the Sept. 30 budget year. Neither was included in the bill that the House Appropriations Committee released on Tuesday.

The White House request asks for “authority to train and equip appropriately vetted elements of the Syrian armed opposition to help defend the Syrian people from attacks by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) and the Syrian regime” as well as stabilize areas in Syria under rebel control.

Some Republicans signaled they could support the request to arm and train Syrian opposition forces, especially if Obama lays out a good case Wednesday night.

“We may not have another option,” said Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind. “I think we need a more comprehensive effort than that but that we’re probably going to need that component,” Coats added, referring to arming Syrian rebels. He said it’s important to make sure they are properly vetted to make sure arms don’t get in the wrong hands.

A senior GOP aide said Republican leaders were keeping an open mind on the subject but noted that lawmakers in both parties have expressed reservations about the administration’s lack of follow-up details to earlier requests for assistance to Syrian rebels. The aide insisted on speaking only on grounds of anonymity because the aide was not authorized to discuss internal party deliberations by name.

Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson said Reid may opt to press the idea as legislation separate from the government-wide funding bill. That’s also an option for the GOP-led House.

Republicans also have rejected a companion request to direct $2 billion in unspent funding for overseas military operations to “respond to emergent regional crises” in “Eastern Europe, support ongoing operations in Iraq, and respond to other potential crises” without harming the Pentagon operations or readiness. The request arrived only Friday and was not issued publicly despite its $2 billion price tag.

A spokesman for top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky noted that three separate Senate Committees have adopted legislation including authorization for training and equipping “vetted” elements of the Syrian opposition but that Reid, who sets the Senate agenda, has not called any of them up for a vote.

There is bipartisan anxiety about helping Syrian rebels, in part because of the potential to add instability to a region already in upheaval.

In a speech in May at the U.S. Military Academy, Obama called for a $5 billion counterterrorism fund, but the proposal drew resistance on Capitol Hill as the administration was unable to spell out how the money would be spent.

The $5 billion request includes $500 million to arm moderate rebels in Syria battling the forces of President Bashar Assad.

Associated Press writer Brad Klapper contributed to this report.

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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