Today the House joined the Senate in passing a bill to provide more funding to war efforts in Afghanistan.

This bill has not been without controversy, as some congressmen are not without misgivings about the war efforts -

Washington Post:

‘”What has changed in my mind is I am so discouraged at the chances of our commitment in Afghanistan succeeding that I think it’s time to say, no more,” said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.).’

One interesting piece of this bill is that the original version also included provisions that would not just be for the war but also for domestic relief that Obama and some democrats had really been pushing, in order to justify the spending on the war efforts and bring relief aid to state governments during this recession -

Washington Post:

‘When the House passed an earlier version of the legislation this month, it contained a variety of domestic spending measures, including $10 billion for a fund to avoid layoffs of teachers, $5 billion for Pell Grants for low-income college students and $1 billion for a program to help teenagers and young adults get summer jobs.’

The $37 billion bill no longer includes that, stripping out the domestic impact component.  But it did include provisions that would benefit veterans and efforts in Haiti -

Washington Post:

“…the measure includes $13.3 billion to provide payments to Vietnam War veterans exposed to Agent Orange and about $3 billion for relief efforts in Haiti.”

But perhaps the most noteworthy thing to me and the bottom line in all of this?

That 308-114 vote in the House today was the first fairly nonpartisan vote I have seen since Obama has taken office and Republicans and Democrats paid lip service the priority of working together.

Popularity: 6% [?]