Senator Ben Nelson Votes With Panel Republicans to Restore Funding For Vice President’s Office

WASHINGTON — The White House scored a win Thursday on Capitol Hill after a moderate Senate Democrat broke with his party to restore funding for Vice President Dick Cheney’s office.

The 15-14 vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee came after the House last month narrowly rejected a companion bid to punish Cheney in a continuing battle over whether he is complying with national security disclosure rules.

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., switched his position from a subcommittee vote Tuesday.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate and the author of a bill funding the White House budget and other agencies, had refused to fund the vice president’s $4.8 million budget, arguing that Cheney’s office is refusing to comply with parts of an executive order governing its handling of classified information.

At issue is a requirement that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify. That information is to be provided to the Information Security Oversight Office at The National Archives.

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Pryor raises $1.07 million in second quarter for re-election bid

LITTLE ROCK (AP) – Senator Mark Pryor has nearly $2.9 million in the bank for his re-election campaign. So far, the Democrat has no opposition for his bid for a second term.

Campaign finance reports show Pryor raised 1.0-seven million dollars in the second quarter of the year. That’s less than the $1.8 million he reported in the previous three month period.

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Landrieu secures funds for Alexandria International Airport runway extension, other projects

WASHINGTON -– As a member of the United States Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Mary L. Landrieu, D-La., today secured more than $19 million for 12 projects in Louisiana as part of the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations bill.Projects that Landrieu secured funding for included $1 million for a runway extension at Alexandria International Airport, $1 million for Interstate 49 North and $4 million for Interstate 69, according to a news release by Scott Schneider with her office.

Specifically, she secured $3 million for the Bossier Parish Congestion Relief Program, which improves existing roadways and helps develop new corridors to alleviate congestion on Benton Road, Airline Drive and other area roadways, the release states.

“This funding will greatly aid Bossier Parish relieve traffic that has impeded development in the area,” Sen. Landrieu states. “By improving roadways and reducing traffic, Bossier can continue to grow, improving the quality of life for much of northwest Louisiana.”

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Nelson says change Iraq mission now

Sen. Ben Nelson on Wednesday proposed immediate redeployment of U.S. troops within Iraq rather than waiting for a scheduled September progress report from Gen. David Petraeus.

“We should not wait until Sept. 15 to start doing what we need to do,” Nelson said.

Nelson, a moderate Democratic voice in the Senate’s Iraq war debate, said U.S. soldiers should “get out of the business of trying to quell sectarian violence” in Baghdad and focus their efforts on anti-terrorism and border security.

“Redeploy, not withdraw, our troops,” he told his weekly telephone news conference from Washington.

U.S. soldiers should be used to “pursue al-Qaida operatives” rather than be engaged in a civil war, Nelson said. And they should patrol and secure Iraqi borders while training and equipping Iraqi forces.

Nelson said he’ll propose those changes in “a realistically (and) tactically feasible, bipartisan amendment” to the Senate’s defense authorization bill.

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