April 26 (Bloomberg) -- The Senate approved a war spending measure calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, sending it to President George W. Bush who says he'll veto it.

A day after the House passed the legislation, the Senate voted 51-46 to approve it. Bush has promised to reject the $124.2 billion bill, which would require lawmakers to then draft new legislation to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that doesn't include any troop withdrawals.

``This legislation is dead before arrival.'' Mississippi Republican Trent Lott said. ``Next week can we get together and do the right thing.''

The Senate vote today sends to Bush the first binding restrictions on his conduct of the Iraq war and will prompt only the second veto of his administration. House Democrat John Murtha pledged last night to put other restrictions on Iraq policy in future military legislation in an effort to wear down Republican opposition.

``They are starting to feel the heat,'' Murtha, of Pennsylvania, told reporters after the House vote. ``Everything that passes will have some sort of condition.''

Murtha said House Democrats are considering as a next step funding legislation that would have political and security benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet.

The House approved the spending bill 218-208 last night. That vote, like the Senate vote, was well short of the two- thirds majority required to override a veto.

Begin This Year

The legislation requires the troop withdrawal to begin by Oct. 1 of this year, though the goal of completing it by April 2008 is nonbinding. The completion date changed in congressional negotiations from the original House language, which would have required most U.S. troops to leave Iraq by September 2008.

``The American people do not support an open-ended U.S. military occupation in Iraq,'' said West Virginia Democrat Robert Byrd, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. ``It is time for the White House to stop the fear mongering and face the truth.''

A poll done by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press showed 59 percent of American said they want their representative to support withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by August 2008, while a third said their representative should oppose such a measure.

The poll was conducted April 18-22 among 1,508 adults. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Hagel, Smith Back Withdrawal

Thirteen Democrats voted against the party-backed plan in the House, and two Republicans, Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland and Walter Jones of North Carolina, backed it. In the Senate, Republicans Chuck Hagel of Nebraska and Gordon Smith of Oregon joined the Democrats in support of the bill, while Joe Lieberman, an independent from Connecticut, voted with the opposition.

Republican senators Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and John McCain of Arizona didn't vote, nor did Democratic Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota.

The Senate vote came a day after the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Army General David Petraeus, told lawmakers that the U.S. troop buildup has achieved some success, though al- Qaeda still has the ability ``to conduct horrific, sensational'' car-bomb attacks.

``The operational environment in Iraq is the most complex and challenging I have ever seen,'' he said today at a Pentagon briefing. ``This effort may get harder before it gets easier. Success, in the end, will depend on Iraqi actions.''

Perino Criticizes Timing

After Senate passage today, Democrats said they will send the measure to Bush next week, probably putting it on his desk May 1, the fourth anniversary of Bush's declaration aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln that ``major combat operations'' in Iraq were over.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino criticized the timing. ``If it is the case that they withheld money for the troops in order to play some ridiculous PR stunt, that is the height of cynicism,'' she said today.

Perino last night reiterated that Bush will veto the legislation, saying that it includes ``a surrender date, handcuffs our generals, and contains billions of dollars in spending unrelated to the war.''

Ali al-Dabbagh, a spokesman for the Iraqi government, said the legislation ``sends the wrong signals to some sides that might think of alternatives to the political process,'' according to the Associated Press. Coalition forces ``should continue their mission, which is building Iraqi security forces to take over,'' he said, according to the AP.

Minimum Wage Increase

In addition to money for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the legislation would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 per hour from $5.15. The increase, the first in almost a decade, would come in three 70-cent installments over 26 months. The first would come 60 days after the measure's enactment. Lawmakers paired the increase with $4.84 billion in tax cuts for small businesses to help them cope with the higher minimum wage.

The measure provides $3.5 billion in agricultural assistance, $3.5 billion for states hit by Hurricane Katrina and $650 million for a children's health insurance program.

The legislation would allow states such as New Jersey to trump the chemical safety regulations announced earlier this month by the Department of Homeland Security with their own more stringent rules. It would postpone for one year the administration's plans to cut Medicaid payments to hospitals by $3.87 billion over the next five years. It would also block an administration initiative to allow a limited number of Mexican trucks onto American highways.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nicholas Johnston in Washington at njohnston3@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 26, 2007 15:17 EDT