House to take up Iraq war debate where Senate left off

From CQPolitics.com:

With the Senate deadlocked over Iraq, the focus turns to the House, where Democrats plan several votes designed to hasten an end to U.S. involvement in the conflict.

When the House Appropriations Committee takes up a draft fiscal 2008 Defense appropriations bill July 25, it will consider amendments that would set troop readiness standards and ban permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, among others. Also next week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., will bring to the full House another Iraq-related measure that aides said is still taking shape...

One likely amendment would establish minimal standards for training and equipping units before deployment. Another would require military personnel spend as much time at home between tours as they do deployed. A third would ban permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq.

Either John P. Murtha, D-Pa., the Defense subcommittee chairman, or James P. Moran, D-Va., a member of the panel, will propose an amendment in the committee that would reduce funding for the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and require the closing of the facility within 180 days, both lawmakers have said.

The Defense appropriations bill won’t come to the House floor until the week before the August recess, meaning that next week’s Iraq vote on the House floor would have to be a stand-alone bill or an amendment to another measure.

Hmm, I wonder what this measure is? The House voted on withdrawal last week, so I'm thinking it's a de-authorization of the 2002 Iraq war resolution.

UPDATE: More than 70 House members wrote to President Bush to declare they will only support additional funds for U.S. military operations in Iraq for the protection and redeployment of all troops out of Iraq.