RENO, Nev. -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Saturday that Congress will not give up on the fight to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq even if President Bush ends up signing a war spending bill without the pullout provision.

Speaking to reporters after delivering the commencement address at the University of Nevada, Reno, Reid said the issue would resurface when Congress considers an upcoming defense authorization bill.

His comments came a day after the White House and Congress reached an impasse over a supplemental appropriations bill that Democrats said should set a date for U.S. troops to leave. The bill would fund the troops until Oct. 1.

"The troops are going to get their money," Reid said. "But the minute we send that bill to the president and he signs it, we have another battle plan lined up. We got the defense authorization bill coming up.

"We're going to go right at it and we're right at the whole deal again. We're not going to give up at all. What's happening here is wrong. It's wrong for our troops, it's wrong for the American people, it's wrong for that region. I'm going to keep pushing as hard as I can," he added.

After meeting with Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday, White House chief of staff Joshua Bolton said timelines for withdrawal should not be a basis for troop funding.

Reid, D-Nev., said he's still hoping for passage of the Feingold-Reid Amendment, which would withdraw troops by April 1. If that fails, he predicted troops would be out of Iraq by the 2008 presidential election.

"It appears that (President Bush is) at a point where he seems to be proud that it's his war," Reid said. "He's intractable, he's unwilling to have any accountability, so he's just charging ahead ... As stubborn as he is, there will be some change" before the election.

Reid also challenged an assertion by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that a new war strategy announced by President Bush in January is beginning to show "some success." An increase in terrorist attacks and a mounting American military death toll show otherwise, Reid said.

"So if it's working, I don't know where," Reid said. "This is a balloon and you push down in one area it just pops out someplace else. Why do you think they're having all the problems in the Kurd area now?"

In a recent campaign stop in Reno, McCain insisted security around Baghdad has improved and that the U.S. is dealing better with improvised explosive devices. But he acknowledged suicide bombings are on the upswing and insurgents are moving outside Baghdad.

The Bush administration hopes the buildup of 21,500 more U.S. troops in Iraq will give the Iraqis time to mend sectarian fractures within the government and resolve other reconciliation issues.

Citing concerns over two of its key provisions, Reid said the chances are 50-50 that overhaul immigration legislation would pass the Senate.

"The agreement that has been reached is far from perfect," he said. "In fact, it's in many respects not very good at all ... There's some good things in it and some bad things, and we'll work on it."

Reid criticized a portion of a plan to create a new temporary guest worker program with two-year "Y visas." He said a move would be made next week to lower Sen. Edward Kennedy's proposed initial cap of 400,000 per year to 200,000 or 100,000.

Reid also expressed concern over a proposed change in rules governing automatic family reunification -- being eligible for a visa because of a relative. Plans call for 380,000 visas a year to be awarded based on a point system.

"My wife's father came from Russia. All his family came from Russia ... Under the proposal, that reunification would not be able to take place," Reid said. "We're going to have to, in my opinion, try to work to readjust the point system so we can do a better job of reunifying families."

Reid praised other provisions of the bipartisan legislation, including the agricultural workers' program and creation of a pathway toward legalization.

"What's the word that everybody hates -- amnesty," Reid said. "The fact is ... what we have here is 12 million people in our country illegally. We cannot deport 12 million people. We don't have the resources financially or the manpower to do that. So what we have to do is put them on a pathway to legalization."

In his speech at UNR, Reid extolled the virtues of public service and urged graduates to give back to their communities. He also joked that he was in the top one-third of his eighth grade graduating class in his hometown of Searchlight.

The class had six students.