The Senate began debate on a $121.7 billion war supplemental Monday, with Republican leaders confident they can strip language that sets a goal of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq a year from now.

Fiscal conservatives, meanwhile, made it clear that they were gunning for several non-emergency items in the bill, even as some top senators considered adding a minimum wage increase and small-business tax cuts.

Senate Democratic leaders hope to pass the massive fiscal 2007 emergency spending package (HR 1591) this week. It would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as assorted domestic priorities such as hurricane recovery and agriculture disaster relief. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., filed a motion for cloture on the measure late Monday, hoping to ensure quick consideration.

Although additional spending — close to $20 billion more than President Bush’s $103 billion request — has led to some GOP criticism, what has most divided the parties is language that would require withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by the target goal of March 31, 2008.

As passed by the House, the spending measure would have troops withdrawing from Iraq by the end of August 2008 at the latest. The Senate substituted its own language for the entire House bill.

The Senate withdrawal language mirrors a resolution (S J Res 9) by Reid that the Senate rejected, 48-50, earlier this month. The bill also includes progress benchmarks for the Iraqi government and a requirement for regular reports from the commander of coalition forces in Iraq — language sought by Ben Nelson of Nebraska, one of the few Democrats who voted against Reid’s resolution.

On Monday, Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, introduced an amendment to strike the withdrawal language from the supplemental but not the benchmarks and reporting requirements. Trying to strip all three provisions at once raised the prospect of complicating the Republican effort to eliminate the withdrawal goal, given Nelson’s support for the other two requirements.

“We need to be speeding this funding to our troops rather than slowing it down by returning to a debate already settled by the Senate by a recorded vote,” Cochran said when introducing his amendment, alluding to the failed Reid resolution.

During the Appropriations markup of the emergency spending language, members agreed to put off an extended debate on Iraq because Tim Johnson, D-S.D., was not present. Johnson is recovering from a brain hemorrhage and is not expected to be present for votes this week.

In a television interview with Fox News on March 25, Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., said that although GOP leaders had not done a whip check, he thought they had enough votes to strip the Iraq withdrawal provision. In any case, the legislation faces a presidential veto threat.

Finance Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., wants to add to the measure an increase to the minimum wage, along with a package of small-business tax cuts. The Senate already passed similar legislation (HR 2) with an $8.3 billion tax cut package, with offsets, but the total figure could increase in the supplemental.

Baucus is working with ranking Finance Republican Charles E. Grassley of Iowa on the package, which could be as high as $10 billion. Baucus has said that he hoped to draw support from Jon Kyl of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, by extending faster depreciation of improvements to leased property through the end of 2008, beyond the March 31, 2008, expiration contained in the version already approved by the Senate.

The House bill includes a minimum wage increase and small-business tax cuts totaling at least $1.3 billion.

Baucus said he hoped the new Senate plan would increase chances for a bigger package of tax breaks in a final conference report. He said it was likely that any new tax provisions would be offset, though it was not clear how.

Senate conservatives are readying amendments to chop up a bill that they say has become a Christmas tree for special projects, with figurative and literal ornaments. The measure includes money for disaster-related assistance for trees, including Christmas trees, and a provision dealing with the proceeds of holiday ornament sales at the Senate day care center.

Conservatives say appropriators have circumvented an anti-earmark pledge made during consideration of the fiscal 2007 continuing resolution (PL 110-5). Appropriators rescinded $2 million from that measure and redirected it to the supplemental to start the “Educational Excellence Program” at the University of Vermont.

Vermont Democrat Patrick J. Leahy is an Appropriations subcommittee chairman.

Conservatives also might take aim at programs large and small that they believe are either unworthy of federal funding or should not be included in an “emergency” war supplemental that is not subject to discretionary spending caps.

They include nearly $400 million for Transportation Department projects; $13 million for the Ewe Lamb Replacement and Retention Program; and $20 million for Nevada, Idaho and Utah — the home states, respectively, of Reid and GOP appropriators Larry E. Craig and Robert F. Bennett — to deal with insect infestations.

Those most likely to offer amendments on the spending include Tom Coburn, R-Okla., and Jim DeMint, R-S.C.

Another item likely to be the target of a striking amendment is $100 million to help pay for the Democratic and Republican national conventions in 2008. “Congress will have to choose between booze and balloons or body armor and bullets,” said Coburn spokesman John Hart.

Conservatives are also chuckling over language in the supplemental that authorizes the Senate gift shop to fund its operations through the Senate day care center’s holiday ornament sale.

DeMint plans to seek unanimous consent to have certain earmark disclosure rules adopted as Senate rules immediately.

The disclosure language was contained in a broader Senate bill (S 1) on ethics and lobbying that passed in January, but the House and Senate have yet to reach agreement on a conference report. It would require that the sponsors of earmarks in future appropriations bills be identified, and that there be a stipulation that neither the sponsor nor his or her spouse stood to benefit from the earmark.

Louisiana Democrat Mary L. Landrieu plans to offer an amendment to authorize funding for teacher recruitment, bonuses and housing in hurricane-affected areas, as well as an amendment to fund replacement of an inner harbor navigation canal lock in New Orleans.

Jonathan Allen, Richard Rubin, Alan K. Ota and Daphne Retter contributed to this story.