Senator will stay in D.C. to debate war

WASHINGTON — Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has canceled a trip to Iraq so he can stay in Washington and debate the war on the Senate floor.

Baucus was scheduled to go to Iraq, Kuwait, Tel Aviv and Jordan on a trip with other senators this weekend. But he changed his mind when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called for the Senate to debate the conflict.

Reid unexpectedly announced plans to hold a test vote on Saturday on a measure that opposes President Bush’s plan to send an additional 20,000 troops to Iraq. The same measure has been debated in the House this week.

Partisan bickering has prevented a Senate vote so far, with Republicans insisting on equal treatment for an alternative that rules out the ‘‘elimination or reduction of funds for troops in the field.’’

The Saturday vote will be a procedural maneuver designed to allow debate on the bill. Republicans blocked debate on similar legislation through another procedural vote earlier this month.

‘‘I think it’s clear the American people want the United States Senate to debate this issue,’’ Baucus said on the Senate floor Friday. ‘‘I want to be here tomorrow to cast my vote and start debating. It’s the right thing to do.’’

Baucus has spoken out against Bush’s plan to add troops to the conflict. In January, he said he would not have voted to authorize force in Iraq more than four years ago if he had known then what he knows now.

‘‘Weve lost so many American lives, so many Montanans,’’ Baucus said in his Friday floor speech. ‘‘And it makes no sense, in my judgment, to keep doing this.’’

The state’s other Democratic senator, Sen. Jon Tester, has also changed his weekend plans to be present for the vote, postponing visits to Billings and Laurel.

Tester has also opposed Bush’s plan to add troops.