With House and Senate officials set to meet in conference to hammer out new Iraq legislation, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) made clear again today during a press conference that all options are on the table:
There’s nothing that’s going to be off the table in conference. I had a meeting last night with Speaker Pelosi. And she’s bound and determined that the conference we have — and the president’s going to be involved in that, through his spokesperson, Josh Bolten — is not going to be everything the president wants. He’s not going to have the blank check. There’s a Congress and he has to deal with us.
And I have a very strong person to work with from the House, and that’s an understatement: Speaker Pelosi. Nothing is off the table. The goal remains to fully fund our troops and change course in Iraq. Again, we hope the president and congressional Republicans will negotiate in good faith so that we can provide our troops the funding they need and an effective strategy. And we need to do it by next week.
UPDATE: More HERE.