Democrats plan symbolic vote on Bush's Iraq troop plan

[Ron Burgundy]

AFP - Opposition Democrats who control the US Congress plan to hold a symbolic vote on President George W. Bush's plan to send more US troops to Iraq, the New York Times reported.

The vote will force legislators, especially those with Bush's Republican Party, to go on the record over whether they support the president's new plan for the unpopular war.

Congress has no direct say on sending more troops to Iraq, since under the US constitution the president is the military commander-in-chief, and the executive branch is in charge of US foreign policy.

But a vote against the plan would increase pressure on Bush to find a quick end to the conflict.

The symbolic Senate vote is expected as early as next week, the Times reported, while Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), said she would take up a similar resolution in the lower chamber.

The decision for the vote came after Senator Edward Kennedy (news, bio, voting record), a longtime opponent of the continuing US military presence in Iraq, introduced legislation requiring Bush to get prior congressional approval for a new deployment.

While Congress cannot order troop deployments or withdrawals, it is in charge of the budgetary process. They could withhold funds for US troops -- a politically risky move -- or withhold funds for US contractors in Iraq.

Democratic leaders in Congress have already announced a series of hearings into the conduct of the Iraq war, something the Bush administration never faced when Republicans controlled Capitol Hill.

Democrats were swept into power following the November 7 election, a vote largely seen as a referendum on the Iraq war.

One-third of the 100-seat US senate is renewed in every four-year election cycle, as is the whole 435-member House of Representatives. A vote favoring the Bush war plan could embarrass Republican legislators up for re-election in 2008.