Washington – The Senate passed legislation over the weekend coauthored by Senator Evan Bayh that transfers Iraqi reconstruction responsibility from the American taxpayers to the Iraqi government, which is sitting on a record surplus of as much as $79 billion.

The language drafted by Senators Bayh, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, and Susan Collins of Maine was included in the 2009 National Defense Authorization bill on Saturday. The measure, which passed the House of Representatives last week, now moves to President Bush’s desk for his signature.

“With this vote, Congress has stopped payment on our government’s blank check to Baghdad,” said Senator Bayh. “It’s not fair to ask the American people to borrow billions from China to hand over to a country that is not spending its own money to help itself. This legislation puts the onus on the Iraqis to spend their surplus to rebuild their country and train their military.”

The final legislation includes a ban on use of U.S. taxpayer funds for major reconstruction projects in Iraq costing more than $2 million. Iraq will be required to cover all or part of the costs of major reconstruction projects, joint missions with coalition forces, and training and equipment for their own troops.

All Iraqi reconstruction projects costing more than $1 million must be certified by the secretary of defense before U.S. taxpayer dollars are allocated. It also requires the president to craft a cost sharing agreement with the Iraqi Government for Coalition/Iraqi combined operations in Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

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