Spending Bill Gets Approval
WASHINGTON — Congress, in one of its final acts of the year, on Saturday approved a massive spending bill that tightened the government's purse strings in response to a burgeoning federal budget deficit.
The House approved the $388-billion measure, then the Senate followed suit in a postelection push to wind up the business of the lame-duck 108th Congress.
President Bush was expected to sign the bill. Although it curbed a number of White House initiatives, it fulfilled Bush's goal of clamping down on nondefense spending in the face of a record deficit and mounting costs for U.S. military operations in Iraq.
Final approval appeared in doubt at one point as abortion rights advocates objected to a provision making it easier for healthcare organizations to refuse to provide abortions and related services. But they acquiesced after House leaders promised a separate vote on the provision next year.
Lawmakers said the bill marked a more determined effort to restore fiscal discipline following several years of tax cutting and deficit spending. Excluding funding for defense and foreign aid, funding for domestic programs in the bill grew only 1% from last year.
The House passed the measure on a 344-51 vote; the Senate 65 to 30.
"This is a lean and clean package that adheres to the budgetary limits agreed to by the Congress and the president," said Rep. C.W. "Bill" Young (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "We have resisted many requests for additions to the package that would have busted the budget by billions of dollars."
The spending bill was supposed to be the last piece of business for the 108th Congress. But the House is now expected to come back into session next week to deal with a provision that ran into Senate opposition after House members had already voted and headed home.
Democrats contended the provision could undermine the privacy of income tax returns. Republican leaders said they never intended such a thing and promptly won Senate passage of a measure striking the language. Senate Republican leaders agreed to hold off sending the spending bill to the president until the House acted to remove the language dealing with tax returns.
Another issue is standing in the way of final adjournment: Lawmakers are holding out hope for an agreement on legislation to overhaul the nation's intelligence-gathering system after a compromise proposal was blocked by key House Republicans on Saturday.
