The Iraqi Cabinet voted on 16 November 2008 on a pending agreement to lay the legal framework for the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq past 2008. The Cabinet approved the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), which establishes 31 December 2011 as the final date for U.S. forces to leave Iraq. Approximately 150,000 U.S. forces remain in Iraq at present, and under the agreement (which will take effect upon the expiration of a U.N. mandate on 31 December 2008) troops will be required to leave the streets of Iraqi cities by June 2009; Iraqi officials will also gain a significant amount of authority of U.S. troops and their movements. Negotiations over the agreement have been ongoing between U.S. and Iraqi officials since March 2008; the pact will now go to the Iraqi Parliament for approval. A vote has been scheduled for 24 November, and although many Iraqi groups support the pact, some are against it; at least one large Sunni group wants it to be put to a referendum, and Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr opposes it.