Economic stimulus bill passes Senate test vote amid GOP opposition

WASHINGTON – The Senate held a key procedural vote this evening on the $838-billion stimulus bill, setting up Tuesday’s passage and then a conference committee with the House to determine what the final version should look like.

Needing to hit a 60-vote requirement to end debate and vote on the bill, the Senate voted 61-to-36 on the legislation, which is a rewrite of the legislation sent over by the House in the last week of January. Only a handful of Republicans voted for the bill, with most coming out against it.

In order to get the 61 votes, majority Democrats agreed to several reductions in the bill, including cuts of $16 billion in construction funds for K-12 schools. If, as expected, the legislation gets pro-forma passage on Tuesday, it will set up what could be a fractious round of negotiations on a compromise between the House and Senate versions.

Even President Barack Obama has said he would like some of the money for education drained from the Senate bill reinstated. The senators also cut $40 billion from a $79-billion state stabilization fund to help struggling states like Michigan keep up education spending at a time when its difficult to balance budgets.

The cost of the Senate version was tagged at $780 billion after the compromise was reached Friday. But after amendments, the Congressional Budget Office said today the 10-year price of the legislation is more in the neighborhood of $838 billion.

Today’s vote was close but scarcely in doubt once the White House and Democratic leaders agreed to trim about $100 billion on Friday.

As a result, Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania broke ranks to cast their votes to advance the bill.

Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., battling a brain tumor, made his first appearance in the Capitol since suffering a seizure on Inauguration Day, and he joined all other Democrats in support of the measure.

“There is no reason we can’t do this by the end of the week,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said, he declared he was prepared to hold the Senate in session into the Presidents Day weekend if necessary, and cautioned Republicans not to try and delay final progress.

He said passage would mark “the first step on the long road to recovery.”

Moments before the vote, the Congressional Budget Office issued a new estimate that put the cost at $838 billion, an increase from the $827 billion figure from last week. Ironically, the agency said provisions in the bill intended to limit bonuses to executives at firms receiving federal bailout money would result in lower tax revenues for the government.

“This bill has the votes to pass. We know that,” conceded Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who has spoken daily in the Senate against the legislation.

As if to underscore its prospects for passage, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a prominent and powerful business group, issued a statement calling on the Senate to advance the measure.

Even so, in the hours before today’s vote, Republican opponents attacked it as too costly and unlikely to have the desired effect on the economy. “This is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill,” said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., ridiculed the bill. “The emperor has no clothes! Somebody has to say it. I’m referring to this additional bailout, this spending bill that spends everything we’ve got on nothing we are sure about.”

All 36 votes in opposition were cast by Republicans.
By TODD SPANGLER • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • February 9, 2009
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What do you think about education funds being cut back in order to appease Republicans?

Why will "..provisions in the bill intended to limit bonuses to executives at firms receiving federal bailout money would result in lower tax revenues for the government?"

Why do you think the U.S. Chamber of Commerce supports the passage of this bill?

Why are Republicans calling this bill the, "spending bill?"

U.S. Chamber of Commerce letter to the Senate:
http://www.uschamber.com/issues/letters/2009/090206_senatestimulus.htm
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