GI Bill Passes Senate; 22 Senators Don't Support Troops

by: Brandon Friedman

Thu May 22, 2008 at 14:20:35 PM EDT

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans have broken with President Bush to help Democrats add support for veterans and the unemployed to a bill paying for another year of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The 75-22 vote also added billions of dollars in other domestic funds such as heating subsidies for the poor and money for fighting wildfires to the $165 billion for the military operations overseas.
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The huge tally in the Senate was driven by $15.6 billion over two years to extend unemployment benefits by 13 weeks and more than $50 billion over the upcoming decade to provide returning Iraq war veterans with sharply increased college aid.

The fight is far from over, however.  The bill now goes back to the House, where it's still not veto-proof at this point.  The good news, though, is that among the anti-troop Republican ranks, the fear seems to be spreading.  As an example of this, several Republican senators--including Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)--switched their votes this morning at the last minute--once they saw it was going to reach the 60-vote threshold.

And, in case you were wondering, Senator John McCain--who's argued vociferously against the Webb Bill--skipped the vote.  He was one of only three senators to do so--one of whom was Ted Kennedy, the senior Massachusetts senator who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor.  Instead, John McCain is out in California, criticizing gay marriage on the Ellen DeGeneres Show and then going to raise money for his own campaign at an event held by the San Diego Chargers owner.

John Cornyn, the other target of the recent VoteVets ads, voted against the bill.  Here's the full list:

Senators Who Voted Against the Troops

NAYs ---22

Alexander (R-TN)
Allard (R-CO)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Bennett (R-UT)
Brownback (R-KS)
Bunning (R-KY)
Burr (R-NC)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
DeMint (R-SC)
Ensign (R-NV)
Enzi (R-WY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Gregg (R-NH)
Hatch (R-UT)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Lugar (R-IN)
McConnell (R-KY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Voinovich (R-OH)

These things are effective--and the 22 senators listed above can look forward to more of them: