As the Bush administration prepares to ask Congress for $1.7 billion more to carry out a revised plan for continuing reconstruction in Iraq, a top State Dept. official has made clear that local firms will take the lead in carrying out the rebuilding. But Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats also said they want the administration to provide more information and assurances about the plan before they endorse additional funds.
"We're getting out of the reconstruction business in Iraq," David M. Satterfield, the State Dept.'s coordinator for Iraq, told a Foreign Relations hearing on Jan. 25. In early phases of the rebuilding, mostly financed by the $20.9-billion Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund, the contracts were large and generally went to large U.S. or multinational firms. But in summer 2005, officials began rethinking the approach and have since been moving more work to local Iraqi contractors.