House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she would bring a new Iraq measure to the House floor shortly to provide $50 billion in funds for the war, while requiring U.S. troops to begin redeploying out of Iraq immediately and conclude by the end of next year.“In last year's election, the American people called for a new direction; nowhere was that direction more called for than in the war in Iraq,” Pelosi told reporters. “And so in the next day or so, we once again bring to the floor legislation that makes a distinction, a clear distinction: choose a new direction from the Bush foreign policy in Iraq.”
The California Democrat said the bill would leave a small force in the country to pursue Al Qaeda, protect U.S. interests and train Iraqi security forces. The bill would also require that U.S. interrogators abide by guidelines set forth in the Army field manual and that troops spend more time at home between deployments.
This measure, as with everything House Democrats have proposed to end the war in Iraq, would face significant hurdles in the Senate and would likely face a veto from the president.
The House could vote on the new measure as soon as Friday.