From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

The Iraq spending bill on its way to the White House.

Hello again, I'm on the aisle in. This is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues, Americans care about most.

After House approval last night, the Senate today passed the Iraq spending bill that President Bush

has promised to veto. Meantime, today's poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal shows 56 to 37%

public support for the withdrawal timetables the president will be rejecting. On To the Point,

what happens next when the White House and Congress finally start working toward compromise?

Is the surge working? Is the war already lost or is victory still possible? How important is

public opinion? On reporter's notebook later on, the Secretary of State and Congressional Oversight.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. McArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Mormon Allie, back with To the Point. The Senate and Congress have sent President Bush the Iraq spending bill that he's promised to veto. On To the Point, we'll hear about the debate, the surge, timetables for troop withdrawal, and the importance of public opinion. On reporter's notebook, a committee of Congress, has subpoenaed Condoleezza Rice to testify about the justification for war.

She is not inclined to comply. What are the limits to congressional oversight?

First, there's news update. The United Nations reports that things are rapidly worsening for Iraqis, with violence on the increase, as well as the judicial system practice of forcing confessions

from prisoners by torture. The UN criticized the Maliki government for not releasing a count

of civilian casualties, but the L.A. Times has obtained its own figures from various Iraqi

ministries. Tina Sussman is the Times-Bagdad Bureau Chief, and Tina, thanks very much for joining

us. So what are your figures show? Well, the figures we got indicated that in the first

three months of this year, in Baghdad alone, more than 5,500 people had died in violence. So, you know, those are obviously pretty high figures.

And this United Nations report that you mentioned, this is the 10th such report the UN has put up since 2005.

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