Senate Clears Emergency Funds, Sends to Bush

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate on Wednesday cleared $28.9 billion in emergency funds for the Pentagon ( news - web sites), U.S. homeland security efforts and New York's recovery from the Sept. 11 attacks -- sending the much-delayed package to President Bush ( news - web sites), who is expected to sign it into law.

The Senate voted 92-7 to approve the 2002 supplemental spending bill, which was earlier passed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday. Lawmakers last week cut billions of dollars in spending from the bill to satisfy White House complaints that it had grown too large.

The core elements of the package, which Bush first requested over four months ago, always enjoyed wide support.

But its progress was slowed by bitter clashes between the White House -- which wanted to limit the bill's cost in the face of mounting U.S. budget woes -- and lawmakers determined to fund their own priorities and defend their constitutional role as holders of the public purse-strings.

White House Budget Director Mitch Daniels told reporters the bill met Bush's priorities while still holding the line on spending. "On the fundamentals, it's a good bill," he said.

The delays led the Pentagon to warn recently that it would run out of money for vital operations if the measure was not approved by the end of the month. The Transportation Department also said efforts to overhaul passenger and baggage screening at airports could be derailed if the deadlock continued.

"This funding will take steps now -- without delay -- to plug the holes in our nation's defenses," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat. "I hope the president will sign all of this emergency funding into law quickly."

The bill provides $14.5 billion for U.S. operations in Afghanistan ( news - web sites) and other military needs, as well as $6.7 billion for efforts to bolster U.S. domestic defenses after Sept. 11.

Another $5.5 billion would go to help New York recover from the destruction of the World Trade Center. And, with an eye on November's congressional elections, lawmakers also included a number of items unrelated to U.S. counterterrorism efforts.

The bill provides $1 billion to make up a shortfall in the popular Pell Grant program for college students, $400 million for improving U.S. voting systems and $200 million to fight HIV ( news - web sites)/AIDS ( news - web sites) and other infectious diseases around the world.

It also includes $205 million in assistance for Amtrak passenger rail services, $31 million to boost enforcement activities at the Securities and Exchange Commission ( news - web sites) and $250 million in humanitarian aid to Israel and the Palestinians.

Bush must still decide whether to accept the full $5.1 billion in congressional priorities included in the bill. Lawmakers ensured he would not be able to pick and choose among the items they favor by requiring the White House to either spend all of those funds, or forego the entire amount.

This is from last week, but I couldn't find anything posted on this, and on the Daily Dose thread, the question of whether the Military supplemental spending had been approved came up.

My reading of this article is that, yes, it passed.

1 posted on 07/29/2002 9:40:33 PM PDT by ThePythonicCow

I THINK this was the bill that Daschle added his environmental/Nat'l Forest Management Plan exemption to for South Dakota forests.

3 posted on 07/29/2002 10:12:10 PM PDT by ThePythonicCow

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.