http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25198781.htmWASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush threatened on Tuesday to veto a bill to fund the Iraq war and Hurricane Katrina rebuilding if its cost exceeds $92.2 billion, as he weighed in on a heated Senate debate over the bill's rising price tag.
The veto threat, announced in a White House statement on the $106.5 billion emergency spending measure, was aimed at placating conservatives in Bush's Republican Party who are irate over extra items added that they deem as "special-interest" spending.
Bush has not vetoed a bill in his more than five years in office.
The overall spending in the Senate bill is about $14.5 billion more than Bush requested and which was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives.
The spending bill includes $67.6 billion that the Pentagon says it urgently needs for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. About $27 billion would be added to the cleanup tab for Hurricane Katrina. Various other projects totaled nearly $12 billion.
Bush's limit of $92.2 billion for the bill does not include money for avian flu spending. The Senate bill contains $2.3 billion in added funding to fight a possible avian flu pandemic in humans.
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