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US Congress OKs $410b spending bill

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-03-11 08:29

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee (L) questions Budget Director Peter Orszag on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 10, 2009, during the committee's hearing on President Barack Obama's fiscal 2010 federal budget. Committee Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. is at right. [Agencies]

Adding in spending bills passed last year for defense, homeland security and the Veterans Administration — as well as US$288.7 billion in appropriated money in the stimulus bill — total appropriations so far for 2009 have reached US$1.4 trillion. And that's before the Pentagon submits another US$75 billion or so request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Appropriated spending for 2008 was US$1.2 trillion; Obama's budget for next year calls for US$1.3 trillion in appropriations.

Related readings:  US Senate bogs down over $410b spending bill  Obama signs $787B stimulus bill into law

Democrats had long feuded with Bush over domestic appropriations levels and stopped action on the nine bills last year, gambling that Obama would win the election and restore hundreds of cuts proposed by Bush.

And, to the embarrassment of Obama — who promised during last year's campaign to force Congress to curb its pork-barrel ways — the bill contains 7,991 earmarks totaling US$5.5 billion, according to calculations by the Republican staff of the House Appropriations Committee.

Among the many earmarks are US$485,000 for a boarding school for at-risk native students in western Alaska and US$1.2 million for Helen Keller International so the nonprofit can provide eyeglasses to students with poor vision.

At the same time, the measure chips away at several leftover Bush administration policies. It clears the way for the Obama administration to reverse a rule issued late in the Bush administration that says greenhouse gases may not be restricted to protect polar bears from global warming. Another Bush administration rule that reduced the input of federal scientists in endangered species decisions can also be quickly overturned without a lengthy rulemaking process.

The big increases — among them a 14 percent boost for a popular program that feeds infants and poor women and a 10 percent increase for housing vouchers for the poor — represent a clear win for Democrats who spent most of the past decade battling with Bush over money for domestic programs.

Generous above-inflation increases are spread throughout, including a US$2.4 billion, 13 percent increase for the Agriculture Department and a 10 percent increase for the money-losing Amtrak passenger rail system.

Congress also awarded itself a 10 percent increase in its own budget, bringing it to US$4.4 billion. But the measure also contains a provision denying lawmakers the automatic cost-of-living pay increase they are due next Jan. 1.

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