Buried in the House’s emergency war spending measure is a little-noticed provision that underscores the assertiveness Democrats are bringing to their oversight of the Iraq War.

The provision would hold back half the $3.8 billion slated for training and equipping the Iraqi military in fiscal 2007 until the Bush administration provides Congress with classified reports on the readiness of the Iraqi forces. It also would require an estimate of the total costs to fully outfit and prepare Iraq’s security establishment.

President Bush has said repeatedly that the U.S. exit strategy from Iraq depends largely on training Iraqi troops and police to the point where they can shoulder responsibility for their own security, allowing many of the U.S. troops in the country to go home.

Since the Iraq War began, four years ago, Congress has appropriated $15.4 billion to train and equip Iraqi security forces, but the Pentagon has denied lawmakers detailed information about the Iraqis’ capabilities, despite requests from members of both parties.

“The lack of information has resulted in a lack of oversight, a lack of accountability,” said Martin T. Meehan, D-Mass., chairman of the House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, which is conducting a review of Iraqi security forces. “If the information isn’t provided, it’s very difficult to get to the crux of this issue, which is the central issue of the war in Iraq.”

Now, with Democrats in charge on Capitol Hill, Congress is pushing back harder against the information blackout, for the first time considering legislation that conditions full funding for the training operations on the receipt of Pentagon status reports on Iraq’s forces.

Without the data, lawmakers say, Congress cannot effectively oversee the spending on Iraqi security units, which could grow by $5.8 billion through fiscal 2008 with Bush’s latest defense request for an additional $2 billion for training.

Moreover, they add, without a clear picture of Iraqi military capabilities, Congress cannot know how soon the U.S. forces can safely transfer to Iraq responsibility for its security and begin to withdraw from Iraq.

The White House has consistently resisted congressional attempts to force disclosure of information the administration considers privileged. The Pentagon has told congressional staff that the Iraqi readiness data are too sensitive to share with Congress, even with aides who are cleared to see classified information. Bush has threatened to veto the spending bill (HR 1591) over several issues, including the conditions it sets on the funding of Iraqi security forces.

“It is unconscionable that funds for the Iraqi security forces be subject to conditions that may threaten our full support,” said a March 19 statement of administration policy.

Every quarter, the Pentagon sends Congress a report that shows the number of Iraqi battalions that are either capable of fighting without U.S. help or able to take the lead in joint operations with U.S. forces.

But the report lumps the two categories together. For example, the March 2007 report says 92 of Iraq’s 155 military battalions fall into one or the other of those two categories; it does not break down how many fall into each.

The Pentagon does tell Congress the number of battalions at the highest readiness rating but only in a classified annex to the quarterly report. The problem, lawmakers and aides say, is that almost no additional information is provided.

This year, aides said, Democratic lawmakers started asking for the Pentagon’s Transition Readiness Assessments, which are reports prepared by U.S. and Iraqi commanders on each Iraqi army or police unit.

The reports measure the personnel, equipment and training available in each unit, as well as data about their reliability and sectarian leanings. They include written analysis by commanders, according to Joseph A. Christoff, director of the International Affairs and Trade Division at the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the investigative arm of Congress.

For the past year, the GAO also has asked the Pentagon for the reports, receiving a total of two, Christoff said.

In another sign of Congress’ displeasure with the Pentagon’s response, Comptroller General David M. Walker, the head of GAO, recently spoke with Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England to broker an agreement on the documents.

Ike Skelton, D-Mo., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, first requested Pentagon readiness reports on the Iraqi military and police in January, but the Pentagon did not provide the information. In a March 15 letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Skelton reiterated the request: “Congress must have this information in order to carry out its constitutional oversight responsibilities.”

That language is echoed in the report accompanying the war spending bill. Noting that the Pentagon “fails to provide readiness assessments of individual Iraqi units,” the report said that “without that information, Congress is unable to assess independently the progress in the development of Iraqi security forces.”

The Bush administration has reported progress in training Iraqi military units. But without the readiness documents, such claims remain unverified, said Christoff.

“The question is, how capable are they?” he said.