WTHR |Lugar talks about Senate vote

Lugar talks about Senate vote

Jeremy Brillant/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - This could be a pivotal week determining support for a proposed troop increase in Iraq.

The Senate is expected to vote against the President's proposal to send an additional 20,000 troops to the region - even those troops are already moving in.

On Sunday morning ranking members of the influential Senate committee on foreign Relations spoke about the issue, including Indiana Senator Richard Lugar.

"This resolution is for people to vent their emotions, their thoughts, to get on record.  I don't believe it's helpful to show this disarray," Lugar said.

Lugar says instead of the making political statements, lawmakers should be more constructive.

"We really need at this point to get on the same page."

But committee chair Democrat Joseph Biden, who will officially announce his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the president this week, said the resolution could send a strong message to President Bush that more troops in Iraq isn't the answer.

"There's no question there's a movement in Congress to say to the President, you didn't listen to the Iraq Study Group, you took a path fundamentally different from 95 percent of the advice you were given.  I don't fault the resolutions for being chaotic but I would simply say they are an attempt to vent current emotions, to be on the record, but they're not helpful to troops, to the Iraqis," said Biden.

Republicans are considering drafting a resolution of their own, which would be less harsh but insist on bench marks for progress in Iraq.

The resolutions would not be binding, but rather, just a recommendation to the President.