1. Various of vote in US Senate 2. Senate floor 3. SOUNDBITE (English): Senator Evan Bayh, Democrat from Indiana: "Remember the young soldier who stood up when the Secretary of Defence visited Iraq and spoke about hillbilly armour? Do you remember him speaking about rummaging through the garbage to find metals to weld onto the side of the vehicle? So you remember the round of applause he got from his fellow soldiers? Do you remember that? The troops know what's going on, the press knows what's going on, apparently the House of Representatives knows what's going on. It is time that the Senate took a stand as well to do something about this, to give the troops the protection they need. Rummaging through the garbage, that's an outrage. Here's our chance to bring it to a stop, we ask for you support." 4. Senate floor 5. SOUNDBITE (English): Senator Thad Cochran, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and Republican from Mississippi: "Thank all senators for their co-operation in the passage of this bill. There were a lot of amendments presented and we agreed to some of them. Some of them were adopted. We are going to conference with the House now to work out differences between the two bills, and I'm confident we will be able to come back with a product in the form of a conference report which the Senate can support, which will continue to support. The additional funding that is needed for this fiscal year for our troops in the field, for those who are deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world in the 'war on terror', and will meet the needs of our State Department through replenishment of accounts that have been depleted because of the disaster in the Tsunami episode, and for other needs that the Senate and House have seen fit to include in this appropriation bill." 6. Senate floor STORYLINE: The US Senate on Thursday approved 81 (b) billion US dollars for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in a spending bill that would push the total cost of combat and reconstruction past three-hundred (b) billion US dollars. Both the Senate and House of Representatives versions of the measure would give President Bush much of the money he requested. But the bills differ over what portion should go to military operations. The Pentagon says it needs the money by the first week of May, so Senate and House negotiators are expected to act quickly to send the president a final bill. Other issues to be resolved in the competing versions include immigration changes, a US embassy in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, military death benefits and the fate of an aircraft carrier. Overall, the Senate version would cost about 81 (b) billion US dollars, compared with the 81.4 (b) billion US dollars the House approved and the 81.9 (b) billion US dollars that Bush requested. Congress has passed four similar emergency spending measures for the wars since September 11, 2001. This one would put the overall cost of combat and reconstruction efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan - as well as Pentagon operations against "terrorists" worldwide - past 300 (b) billion US dollars. The House bill would add money to the president's request for defence expenses; the Senate's would not. The Senate version would restore some money the House cut for foreign aid and State Department programmes. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/85e2b0cdfa71ccb9fdd396359879d2da Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork

• published: 21 Jul 2015
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