By John M. Donnelly, CQ Staff

Influential Senate Democrats will push next year for congressional ratification of a U.S.-Iraq security agreement that would govern the future presence of U.S. troops in that country.

Virginia Democrat Jim Webb said Wednesday that he would push for the Senate to approve a bill requiring congressional approval of this security pact. Senior lawmakers, such as Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, the Democratic vice presidential nominee and the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Appropriations Chairman Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, and Armed Services Chairman Carl Levin of Michigan have indicated in the past their support for such a bill.

Webb has been a leading advocate of the view that Congress has a right and responsibility to vote its approval or disapproval of the pact. The 110th Congress instead has declined to assert that role and has insisted only that they review the agreement.

Although Webb is a first term senator, the former Navy secretary and member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations panels exercises considerable sway over his colleagues on national-security issues.

“Even if this agreement is signed by the administration and the Iraqi government, does it really have the force of law from the perspective of the U.S. government?” he said in an interview Wednesday.

Webb does not think Congress will change its position during a lame-duck session expected to occur in November. But he said that he plans to press on in early 2009 for a requirement that Congress ratify the pact.

U.S. officials have told Webb that the 2002 resolution (PL 107-243) authorizing the use of force in Iraq gives the administration the power to negotiate a security agreement with Iraq without congressional approval.

“I don’t think that holds up,” Webb said. “I don’t know of another situation in our history where we have defined our relationship with another country purely through an executive agreement.”

Webb said he hopes Senate leaders will back him up in his campaign.

“The question is whether the leadership will perceive this as an issue worthy of the attention of the full Senate and the full Congress,” he said.

The U.S.-led military coalition has operated in Iraq under a U.N. resolution that expires on Dec. 31, 2008. Without a replacement agreement, U.S. troops after that date would have to stay on their bases, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters Tuesday.

The U.S. and Iraqi governments have negotiated a final draft of a new agreement that would take effect at the start of 2009. It consists of an overall security agreement defining the military relations between the two nations and a narrower “status of forces” agreement, setting forth the legal ground rules for U.S. military operations.

While the U.S. Congress is not bound to ratify the agreement, the Iraqi parliament must do so. Several Iraqi cabinet members said this week the draft pact should be renegotiated to firm up the date when U.S. forces will withdraw from Iraq.