The Senate rejected a proposal on Thursday to require President Barack Obama to submit a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, despite unease among some members of his party over the nine-year-old war.

[The 80-18 vote nixed a bid by liberal Democrat Russ Feingold for a detailed troop timetable, which he argued would avoid future “emergency” war spending bills such as the $33 billion one now before the Senate. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis)]The 80-18 vote nixed a bid by liberal Democrat Russ Feingold for a detailed troop timetable, which he argued would avoid future “emergency” war spending bills such as the $33 billion one now before the Senate. (REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis) The 80-18 vote nixed a bid by liberal Democrat Russ Feingold for a detailed troop timetable, which he argued would avoid future “emergency” war spending bills such as the $33 billion one now before the Senate.

But most members of the Democratic-majority Senate proved unwilling to dictate to the president, with a buildup of 30,000 additional troops still underway that Obama ordered to Afghanistan and a new military push in the Kandahar area.

Adopting Feingold’s plan would “reinforce the fear … that the United States will abandon the region,” Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, said.

Levin said this was unwise as the Taliban is “doing everything it can” to convince Afghans that U.S., NATO and Afghan forces cannot protect them.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, also voted against Feingold’s proposal. “I’ve felt no impatience about Afghanistan in my caucus,” he said on Wednesday.

But several Democratic senators are increasingly anxious now that U.S. combat deaths have passed the 1,000 mark in Afghanistan and the cost of the war topped $300 billion.

The war in Iraq has cost over $700 billion, with 4,400 U.S. military dead since 2003.

“I’m impatient. Time to start thinking about a different approach, I think,” Senator Tom Harkin said earlier this week.

Senator Jeff Bingaman, another Democrat, said: “I think there’s a high level of impatience, but exactly what should be done legislatively about that issue, I don’t know.” He voted against Feingold’s proposal; Harkin voted for it.