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Home | Politically Connected | National Politics | U.S. Senate
Coleman joins effort to reduce reconstruction costs in Iraq
The bipartisan initiative calls for future reconstruction spending to be in the form of loans, not grants.
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WASHINGTON -- U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman wants Iraq to pick up the tab for its own security and reconstruction.
The Minnesota Republican, facing what could be a tough reelection battle this year, joined a bipartisan group of senators Tuesday who are drafting a "sense of the Senate" resolution that would restrict future reconstruction dollars to loans instead of grants.
"I do think it's important with the changing circumstances in Iraq," he said. "This is something that needs to be done."
Coleman, who visited Iraq in January, said the nation currently produces 2.3 million barrels of oil a day. At $100 a barrel, he said, "that's close to a quarter billion dollars a day."
The move reflects a growing consensus in Congress in reaction to the recent reports by U.S. Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker about the fragile military and political gains of the past year's U.S. troop "surge."
Members of Congress in both parties, eyeing Iraq's rising oil income five years after the U.S.-led invasion, are now seeking to minimize U.S. war reconstruction costs, which have totaled $47.5 billion since 2003.
The Baghdad government has budgeted more than $50.6 billion over the same period. But a January report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted that Iraq has actually spent little of its budgeted reconstruction funds.
The Bush administration has argued that the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is on a pace to surpass the United States on reconstruction spending this year, a sign of progress there.
But Coleman said that U.S. taxpayers are still on the hook for billions for rebuilding this year and that the Iraqis still need a push. "Their pace is slower than our pace."
Others involved in the legislative effort include Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Evan Bayh of Indiana.
The resolution's authors say it would make good on the promise of former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who said early in the war, "We're dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon."
Sensitivities about Iraq's growing oil wealth are particularly high in Congress now as consumers are paying record gasoline prices of $3.30 a gallon or more.
Coleman indicated that the resolution could be included in an upcoming defense policy bill to cover war spending through September. But Democratic leaders who control the Senate have yet to weigh in on the initiative, which in its current form would not be binding.
The plan does not address U.S. military costs in Iraq, estimated at $10 billion a month.
War critics, including Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., rallied on Capitol Hill and in St. Paul Tuesday to mark the April 15 tax filing deadline by reminding voters of mounting U.S. war costs that have now exceeded $600 billion.
Jeremy Funk, a spokesman for Americans United for Change, a group that has targeted Coleman, said the effort to curb U.S. reconstruction costs is not enough. "This is an election-year posturing effort by a politician who has supported all of Bush's failed economic and war policies who is now running scared and trying to hold onto his job," he said.
Kevin Diaz • 202-408-2753
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