Pelosi: ‘I’m Not Likely To Vote For Something That Doesn’t Have A Timetable’

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) confirmed at a press conference late this afternoon that she does not intend to vote for the Iraq deal reached today by the White House and Congress. “I’m not likely to vote for something that doesn’t have a timetable or a goal,” she said, while still praising the deal as “a recognition by the administration that a new direction was called for by the American people.”

Later, House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI) insisted that “we intend to continue that fight” for an Iraq timeline “on every vehicle available to us,” adding that the “first two vehicles that we expect to join the issue on are the defense appropriations bill in July and the defense supplemental appropriations bill in September.”

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Also during the press conference, Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) called the deal “the beginning of the end of the president’s policy in Iraq,” citing the 18 benchmarks and two required ‘progress reports’ laid out in the legislation. Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC), the House Majority Whip, pointed out that the bill will allow for passage of the first minimum wage increase in a decade, and for more than $6 billion to be delivered to victims of Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.