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US Congress OKs $410b spending bill
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-11 08:29 WASHINGTON – The Democratic-controlled US Senate on Tuesday approved a $410 billion bill to fund government operations through September 30, despite Republican attempts to trim it down amid concerns about more spending. The Senate approved the measure by voice after it cleared a key procedural hurdle by a 62-35 vote. Sixty votes were required to shut down debate.
Obama will sign the measure Wednesday, the White House said, but he will also announce steps aimed at curbing lawmakers' penchant for pet projects. The US$410 billion bill is chock-full of lawmakers' pet projects and significant increases in food aid for the poor, energy research and other programs. It was supposed to have been completed last fall. The bill ran into an unexpected political hailstorm in Congress after Obama's spending-heavy economic stimulus bill and his 2010 budget plan forecasting a US$1.8 trillion deficit for the current budget year. And Republicans seized on Obama's willingness to sign a bill packed with pet projects after he assailed them as a candidate.
Within Democratic ranks, there was relief, not jubilation. The 1,132-page spending bill has an extraordinary reach, wrapping together nine spending bills to fund the annual operating budgets of every Cabinet department except for Defense, Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs. Described by lawmakers as a US$410 billion measure — but officially tallied by the Congressional Budget Office at US$408 billion because of technicalities involving heating subsidies for the poor — the bill was written mostly over the course of last year, with support from key Republicans such as Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the Senate's No. 3 Republican. They sit on the Senate Appropriations Committee. McConnell is the successful sponsor or co-sponsor of US$76 million worth of pet projects, known as "earmarks," not requested by former President George W. Bush, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group. Alexander obtained a more modest 36 earmarks totaling US$32 million. Alexander supported the measure in the end; McConnell did not. But bipartisan support for the bill evaporated after projected deficits quadrupled and Obama's economic recovery bill left many of the same spending accounts swimming in cash. Congressional aides say the true cost is closer to US$410 billion once heating subsidies for the poor passed last year are included. Some Republicans noted that the government has been functioning just fine for more than five months at last year's funding levels. "Why not go back to 2008 levels," said Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas. "That would be a responsible action that might start giving confidence to the American people." At issue is the approximately one-third of the budget passed each year by Congress for the operating budgets of Cabinet departments and other agencies. The rest of the budget is comprised of benefits programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — as well as interest payments on the swelling US$11 trillion national debt. |
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