Senate Passes Federal Spending Bill

[steven johnson]

Source: NY Times

By CARL HULSE
Published: December 13, 2009
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.

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More Politics NewsSenators 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.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/14/us/politics/14spendweb.html

[Synicus Maximus]

1. Senate sends $1.1 trillion spending bill to Obama

Source: AP

WASHINGTON – 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.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091214/ap_on_bi_ge/us_congress_spending;_ylt=AitlArTI0z9VmzoUDHwK_Y6s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTNrbGJnZDg4BGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMDkxMjE0L3VzX2NvbmdyZXNzX3NwZW5kaW5nBGNjb2RlA21vc3Rwb3B1bGFyBGNwb3MDMgRwb3MDNgRwdANob21lX2Nva2UEc2VjA3luX3RvcF

[showpan]

2. More debt....

This bill raises the $12.1 trillion debt ceiling and does not include the defense budget. It was passed with one hour of debate and contained more than 1,000 pages, only 3 dems voted no.

Bayh (D-IN)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Feingold (D-WI)


http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00374
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d111:1:./temp/~bss4ol5:@@@S