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WASHINGTON
—(AP)— Congress overcame mostly Democratic opposition last
Thursday and approved a belated $373 billion bill financing most
federal agencies and endorsing President Bush's policies on overtime
pay, food labeling, media ownership and guns. Over
protests by unions, some farm groups and conservatives angered by the
measure's mountain of pork-barrel projects, the Senate approved the
1182-page bill by a bipartisan 65-28 vote. The House passed it in
December. The
vote, on the first major bill that Congress has approved this election
year, completes a measure that was due last Oct. 1, when the
government's budget year began. The
bill permits retailers to wait until September 2006, rather than this
September, to put country of origin labels on meat and many other
foods sold in U.S. stores. Despite the Christmas season discovery of a
Washington state cow with so-called “mad cow” disease, the
administration rebuffed demands by Democrats and some cattle-state
Republicans to strip the delaying language. The
bill also lets the administration go ahead with rules allowing
companies to pay overtime to fewer white collar workers and letting
media companies own more television stations. It would create the
first federal school vouchers and shorten the period the government
keeps records on gun purchasers from 90 days to 24 hours. ``This
bill is a good consensus,'' said Senate Appropriations Committee
Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. ``It's good for the country, and it
will fund agencies that need the money now.'' Though
defeated on Capitol Hill, Democrats said they would make those battles
part of this fall's presidential and congressional elections. ``These
issues will not go away,'' said Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D. Democrats
succeeded Tuesday in blocking the Senate from finishing the bill. By
Thursday, many of them decided it was time to capitulate and accept
the bill's spending increases and home-state projects. The pivotal
vote on halting the delaying tactics was 61-32. Voting
to end the delays were 11 Democrats and two Republicans who were on
the other side Tuesday, plus two other Democrats who missed Tuesday's
vote. Two Republicans who voted Tuesday to end debate were absent
Thursday. Had
Democrats stalled the measure, Republican leaders threatened to
replace it with a scaled-down bill financing programs at last year's
levels. That
would have been $6 billion less than the stalled legislation, with
less money for the FBI and other anti-terrorism efforts, fighting AIDS
and other programs. It was unclear whether GOP leaders would have won
enough votes to prevail. The
measure melds seven spending bills into one, covering 11 Cabinet
departments and scores of other agencies, plus foreign aid and the
District of Columbia government. Six other spending measures,
including those covering the Pentagon and Department of Homeland
Security, were already enacted. |
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