the veterans funding and send the health-labor-education bill to the president . Perino accused the Democrats of `` trying to hold hostage our veterans to extra domestic spending or increases in taxes . '' `` The president wants clean legislation , a clean bill to fund the veterans , '' Perino said . On Saturday , the Democratic congressional leadership sent a letter to President Bush saying they welcomed a dialogue on spending , sayings disagreements over funding levels `` have never been so great that we can not reach agreement on a spending plan that meets the needs of the American people . '' `` Key to this dialogue , however , is some willingness on your part to actually find common ground , '' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-California , and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid , D-Nevada , said in the letter . The leadership said last year 's Congress , which was still under Republican control , had never passed a separate bill funding veterans programs . Congress also sent to the president legislation that would fund veterans care at the levels requested by the president through December 14 , the leadership said . The
WASHINGTON -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The White House is blasting Congressional Democrats for not sending a bill that would fund veterans ' care programs to the president 's desk by Veterans Day . The White House 's Dana Perino accused Democrats of holding veterans care funding hostage . `` There 's absolutely no reason that the veterans ' bill could not have been signed by the president today , except for the political games that the Democrats decided to play with it , '' White House press secretary Dana Perino said Sunday in Crawford , Texas . Congressional Democrats had attached legislation funding veterans programs to a $ 150.7 billion bill that also funded a number of domestic priorities , including health , labor and education . Democrats also added $ 3.7 billion to what the president budgeted for veterans programs . The labor-health-education bill would increase funding by more than $ 10 billion over last year 's funding for those programs . The president has threatened to veto the bill because of the added spending . The House passed a health-labor-education bill 269-142 last week with the veterans funding attached , but the Senate later voted to strip out