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The Senate on Sunday passed a $1.1 trillion
spending bill with increased budgets for vast areas of the federal
government, including health, education, law enforcement and
veterans' programs.


      The more-than-1,000-page package, one of the last essential
chores of Congress this year, passed 57-35 and now goes to
President Barack Obama for his signature.

      The weekend action underlined the legislative crush faced by
Congress as it tries to wind up the year. 

After the vote, the
Senate immediately returned to the debate on health care
legislation that has consumed its time and energy for weeks. Senate
Democrats hope to reach a consensus in the coming days on Obama's
chief domestic priority.
 


     The spending bill combines six of the 12 annual appropriation
bills for the 2010 budget year that began Oct. 1. Obama has signed
into law five others.

      The final one, a $626 billion defense bill, will be used as the
base bill for another catch-all package of measures that Congress
must deal with in the coming days. Those include action to raise
the $12.1 trillion debt ceiling and proposals to stimulate the job
market.


      The spending bill passed Sunday includes $447 billion for
departments' operating budgets and about $650 billion in mandatory
payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and
Medicaid. Those programs under immediate control of Congress would
see increases of about 10 percent.

      The FBI gets $7.9 billion, a $680 million increase over 2009;
the Veterans Health Administration budget goes from $41 billion to
$45.1 billion; and the National Institutes of Health receives $31
billion, a $692 million increase.


      All but three Democrats voted for the bill, while all but three
Republicans opposed it. Democrats said the spending was critical to
meet the needs of a recession-battered economy. 

"Every bill that
is passed, every project that is funded and every job that is
created helps America take another step forward on the road of
economic recovery," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
said after the vote.

      Republicans decried what they called out-of control spending and
pointed to an estimated $3.9 billion in the bill for more than
5,000 local projects sought by individual lawmakers from both
parties.


      The Citizens Against Government Waste said those projects
included construction of a county farmer's market in Kentucky,
renovation of a historic theater in New York and restoration of a
mill in Rhode Island.


      Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a longtime critic of such projects,
said it was "shameful" that so many had found their way into the
legislation. Most Americans, he said, were watching football and
not the Senate debate, adding, "If they knew what we are about to
pass ...."


      The legislation also contains numerous items not directly
related to spending. It provides help for auto dealers facing
closure, ends a ban on funding by the District of Columbia
government for abortions and allows the district to permit medical
marijuana, lets Amtrak passengers carry unloaded handguns in their
checked baggage and permits detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to be
transferred to the United States to stand trial, but not to be
released.


      The bill also approves a 2 percent pay increase for federal
workers.

      With the Senate concentrating on health care, attention on the
upcoming jobs plan shifts to the House.


      The defense bill that will be the basis for the package normally
enjoys wide bipartisan support, but Republicans, and some fiscally
conservative Democrats, are unhappy with the prospect of another
jolt of deficit-swelling spending.


      Congress must soon raise the debt ceiling, now at $12.1
trillion, so the Treasury can continue to borrow, and Democratic
leaders are eyeing a new figure close to $14 trillion, pushing the
issue past next November's election.


      But a bipartisan group in the Senate says a higher ceiling
should be tied to creation of a task force on deficit reduction,
and House Democratic moderates say their votes could depend on
winning a "pay-as-you-go" law requiring that new tax cuts or
spending programs don't add to the deficit.

      Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., on CNN's "State of the Union,"
favored a deficit task force. He said he didn't "see how this
process where everybody kind of lards on is going to actually ever
come to an end unless we finally have the discipline to do a
straight up-or-down vote across the board on revenues and spending
cuts."


      Proposals to put people back to work include tax breaks for new
company hires, small business tax breaks, public works spending and
federal aid to states.

      Congress is also likely to extend measures, included in the $787
billion stimulus act last February, that provide jobless payments
and health insurance subsidies for the unemployed.
      

Gallery

Senate GOP denied on spending filibuster attempt

Politics and Government News

The Senate on Sunday passed a $1.1 trillion
spending bill with increased budgets for vast areas of the federal
government, including health, education, law enforcement and
veterans' programs.


Senate sends $1.1 trillion spending bill to Obama

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