An overwhelming majority of US Senators have approved a non-binding measure to pressure the Bush administration to develop an exit strategy to end the war in Iraq.
Both New Hampshire Senators supported the amendment - but say it's important not to spell out a specific timeline for withdrawing troops.
NHPR correspondent Julie Donnelly reports from Washington.
Senators are sending a message to the Bush Administration that significant progress must be made next year to end the war in Iraq.
For Democrats, it was an important important victory - a bipartisan challenge to the President's Iraq war policy.
For Republicans, it was a way to head off a democratic proposal that would have included hard a date specific timeline to bring troops home.
Senator Judd Gregg says such a timeline would be counter-productive.
"it doesn't help us. it helps the enemy because if they know the withdrawal date they can use it to their advantage".
Both democrat and republican proposals required the Bush administration to report to congress every three months about the progress being made to end the war.
But where the democrats plan would have demanded the first report in just a month, the Republicans allow three months.
But Senator Gregg doesn't see the reporting requirement as anything revolutionary.
He says the Congress is constantly examining Iraq war policy.
"there are five committees and twenty subcommittees asking for reports about Iraq. We haven't been recalcitrant about asking for information"
The Bush administration is already aware of the need to set clear objectives for progress in Iraq, according to Senator John Sununu.
He says before withdrawing troops, those objectives have to be met.
"it's not a timeline for bringing troops home. it's a set of milestones that have to be achieved for the iraqi people to be able to enjoy better prosperity, political stability and security at home".
A total of seventy nine senators supported the republican resolution.
Other proposals concerning the rights of American detainees in Guantanamo bay, Cuba were more contentious.
Last week South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham offered an amendment that would deny the prisoners the right to file a writ of habeas corpus - saying they feel they've been wrongly imprisoned.
This despite the fact that the supreme court ruled that detainees should be able to appeal their status as enemy combatants.
Democrats offered language to restore those rights.
And Senator Sununu was one of only three republicans to support that amendment.
"it is absolutely critical that we be very careful when it comes to rights of due process, access to the courts, and the writ of habeus corpus is historically part of that process"
In the end, the Senate approved compromise language that would allow certain cases to be heard, but only by the US court of appeals for Washington DC.
Cases where the prisoner has been sentenced to death, or to more than ten years in prison, would automatically be reviewed.
Senator John Sununu reluctantly agreed to support the compromise after the Democrats' amendment failed.
"It doesn't go far enough - i don't support Senator Graham's overall amendment and I hope that this is something that will be improved before the bill gets sent to the president"
Whether the President will sign the bill is another story.
are part of the defense Department Authorization bill.
The bill also includes a ban on torture of US detainees, wherever they are held around the world.
And President Bush has vowed to veto any bill that contains a torture ban.
For NHPR News, I'm Julie Donnelly in Washington.
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