WASHINGTON — House and Senate Democratic leaders, negotiating into the night to forge a compromise with three moderate Republican senators, reached agreement Wednesday on a $789-billion economic recovery bill that President Obama has called crucial to pulling the country out of its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
The bill, slimmed down and reworked to win the handful of GOP votes needed to ensure final approval by the Senate, would finance a flurry of infrastructure and construction projects, extend unemployment benefits, subsidize healthcare coverage for those out of work, and provide tax relief for many. Democrats say it will create or preserve 3.5 million jobs nationwide. The House could vote on the bill as soon as today, and the Senate shortly after.
Republicans lined up early against the bill, saying it was bloated with unnecessary government spending programs, featured too few tax cuts and would substantially increase the national debt. Until the three GOP moderates defected late last week, it remained possible that the minority would be able to delay the bill from moving forward and perhaps force radical changes.
Some Democrats complained that the package was not big enough but said they had no choice but to accept it if the measure was to win the votes of deficit-minded senators. The stimulus package was the first major initiative of the Obama administration and a crucial first step in its plan for reviving the nation's troubled economy.
"There is no choice here, colleagues," Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) told fellow senators gathered in an ornate room in the Capitol to seal the deal. "We must enact this legislation to get jobs in this country."
The agreement came faster than many on Capitol Hill expected, but it didn't arrive without moments of high drama.
At one point Wednesday, Senate Democrats enthusiastically declared to the media that an agreement had been struck -- only to discover moments later that no House members had shown up to put their stamps of approval on the final details. In fact, House leaders -- whose members had voted for a substantially larger measure -- refused to acknowledge that a deal had been reached.
That led to a two-hour session in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office, where intensive efforts were made to resolve a sticking point -- the terms of a provision authorizing money for school renovation.
