Senate approves roughly $80 billion for war effort

WASHINGTON -- The Senate voted easily Thursday to give President Bush about $80 billion for initial costs of the war with Iraq and other anti-terrorism efforts. The House neared approval of a similar bill after thwarting conservatives trying to lash out at Turkey.

Senators approved their measure 93-0, underscoring lawmakers' resolve to back U.S. forces in the field. The day's work put the two chambers on track to send Bush a final package by his deadline of April 11, which would be uncommonly swift for a Congress that received Bush's request for $74.7 billion only a week ago.

Though lawmakers reined in the president's request to control most of the funds and added aid for airlines and other items, the vote gave him a welcome victory on Capitol Hill, a week after the Senate voted to cut in half his plan for new tax cuts.

"It's imperative that we complete this bill ... and get the bill on the president's desk," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn.

The lopsided vote masked partisan disputes that raged in both chambers over the measures' funds for security at home. Both bills contained more than $4 billion for securing potential terrorist targets at home, which Democrats said fell billions short.

USDA approves purchase of rice for aid to Iraq

WASHINGTON -- Following a request from Republican Sen. Jim Talent, the U.S. has decided to send 25,000 metric tons of rice to Iraq as part of its humanitarian aid effort.

Talent asked President Bush in February to include rice among the food items sent to feed the Iraqi people. The Department of Agriculture authorized the rice purchase on Thursday.

Talent, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee, said Iraq was one of the U.S. rice industry's top export markets before sanctions were imposed on the Middle Eastern country.

Rice is grown in 10 southeast Missouri counties. The market value of the state's rice crop in 2001 was about $48.4 million.

"Sen. Talent understands that if we don't prepare shipments now, our producers at home risk losing out to competitors such as India and other countries closer to the Middle East," Kennett rice grower Paul Combs said.

Poll: War support steady, but groups in contrast

WASHINGTON -- People of different ages, races and political beliefs have sharply divergent views of the war, though overall support remains steady at about seven in 10 Americans, a poll released Thursday showed.

About nine in 10 Republicans say President Bush made the right decision to go to war with Iraq while just over half of Democrats, 56 percent, felt that way, according to the poll by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Six in 10 conservative Republicans say the war is going very well and nearly half of moderate to liberal Republicans agree. Just a third of Democrats who consider themselves conservative to moderate agree that the war is going very well, and only a fourth of liberal Democrats.

"Republicans, Democrats and independents are all watching the same pictures that are on TV 24 hours a day," said Andrew Kohut, director of the Pew Research Center. "But they are coming up with vastly different judgments about the way the war is going."

There were also sharply different views about the war in different generations, different races and those with varying levels of education.

While men were the most likely to say that going to war was the right decision, women were much less supportive. Only about half of women over the age of 75 said going to war was the right decision, and about the same number of women under age 25 felt that way. Only a third of black women said that war was the right choice.

--From wire reports