Thread: Senate Passes Federal Spending Bill

December 14, 2009
Senate Passes Federal Spending Bill
By CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Sunday sent President Obama a $446.8 billion measure funding much of the federal government, leaving Congress free to try to sort out a remaining tangle of year-end business.

Senators voted 57 to 35 to give final approval to the legislation that combined six separate spending bills and will keep federal agencies operating through Sept. 30.

Republicans continued to attack the level of spending, but Democrats said that the measure provided need support for programs such as those serving veterans. The measures were due last October but partisan maneuvering and the press of other business kept Congress from completing the bills on time.

The action disposed of one major bit of the daunting Congressional workload. But plenty remains to hold the attention of lawmakers in the days ahead, not the least of which is the Senate debate over health care.

That fight was expected to resume following Sunday’s afternoon’s vote on the omnibus spending bill, with Senate Democratic leaders trying to craft a route to a final vote on the health care overhaul before Christmas.

At the same time, members of the House and Senate were trying to wrap up a number of other issues and negotiations were taking place around the Capitol.

The remaining items include an increase in the national debt limit, a jobs measure being drafted by House Democratic leaders, an extension of unemployment and health benefits for out-of-work Americans, the renewal of a handful of other expiring programs and an extension of the federal estate tax.

The vote for the huge spending bill, which actually totals more than $1 trillion when required spending for social programs is added in, left one spending bill remaining – a $600 billion Pentagon measure that Democrats hope to use to carry along some of the more contentious remaining items.

The House is supposed to complete its business for 2009 by the end of this week, but with the Senate still tied up with health care, the adjournment schedule remains uncertain. Sunday’s Senate session was the second Sunday in a row that lawmakers convened and marked the 13th consecutive day in session for the chamber.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/us/po ... ndweb.html

Senate sends $1.1-trillion spending bill to Obama
From the Associated Press

December 13, 2009 | 4:17 p.m.


WASHINGTON - The Senate today 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.
Copyright © 2009, The Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-naw-sena ... 3349.story

I wonder if these people even know how much a billion even is?? If it is more than their fingers or toes, probably NOT!

All those Government "free-bees" cost money you know....

But I wnder how much these people pay toward it themselves.

Obama, Pelosi, Reid and this Congress are out of Control!
Is it possible to vote them out before the USA is totally buried in Debt and is only the memory of a Super Power ?