Democrats agree to continue Iraq funding without timeline

?The Iraqi government needs to show real progress in return for America?s continued support and sacrifice,? said the commander in chief, and he warned that August could prove to be a bloody month for U.S. troops in Baghdad?s murderous neighborhoods.

Five months in power on Capitol Hill, Democrats in both houses coupled their concession to the president with pledges to challenge his war policies anew. ?Those of us who oppose this war will be back again and again and again and again until this war has ended,? said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

?I hate this agreement,? added Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee who played a key role in talks with the White House that yielded the measure.

In a highly unusual maneuver, House Democratic leaders crafted a procedure that allowed their rank-and-file to oppose money for the war, then step aside so Republicans could provide the bulk of votes needed to send it to the Senate for final approval.

Presidential politics spiced the proceedings across the Capitol.

Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, alone among the Senate?s Democratic White House hopefuls, pledged in advance to oppose the bill. Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware said he supported it.

That left Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois publicly uncommitted in the hours leading to the vote, two leading White House rivals tugged in one direction by the needs of 165,000 U.S. troops ? and in another by party activists demanding rejection of the legislation.

The legislation includes nearly $95 billion to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through Sept. 30. In addition to jettisoning their plan for a troop withdrawal timeline, Democrats abandoned attempts to require the Pentagon to adhere to troop training, readiness and rest requirements unless Bush waived them.

The bill establishes a series of goals for the Iraqi government to meet as it strives to build a democratic country able to defend its own borders. Continued U.S. reconstruction aid would be conditioned on progress toward the so-called benchmarks, although Bush retains the authority to order that the funds be spent regardless of how the Baghdad government performs.

In exchange for providing the war money on Bush?s terms, Democrats won White House approval for about $17 billion in spending above what the administration originally sought. Roughly $8 billion of that was for domestic programs ranging from hurricane relief to farm aid to low-income children’s health coverage.

Democrats also won a top priority ? the first minimum wage increase in more than a decade. The current federal wage floor of $5.15 an hour will go to $7.25 in three separate installments of 70 cents.