http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-05-06-powell-funding_x.htmWASHINGTON — Shortly before Bush administration officials presented Republican congressional leaders with a request for $25 billion in Iraq funding this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell was telling members of the Congressional Black Caucus that no such request would be forthcoming.
"I'm stunned he didn't know," Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, D- Ohio, one of the Black Caucus members who met with Powell, said Thursday.
Powell's associates tried to downplay the mix-up. But it underscores the continuing rift between President Bush's departments of State and Defense and deepens the impression that the nation's top diplomat is being cut out of the decision- making process. "It's unbelievable that our chief diplomat is not being heard," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., another Black Caucus member. "It's tragic and it's dangerous."
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After word of the $25 billion Iraq funding request broke Wednesday, Powell called Congressional Black Caucus Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Md., to assure him he hadn't deliberately misled the caucus. Powell explained he hadn't been informed of the funding request because it was for the military, Cummings said: "Apparently the decision was held closely between the Pentagon and the budget offices."
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