 | | | | | | | | | | |  |  | | | | Top Stories: Senate Clears Latest Stopgap Spending Bill">Archive of stories pre April 2007 | | | | | | | 
Archive of stories pre April 2007 | News submitted by: MIB
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Thursday approved a new temporary spending bill to keep the government running while lawmakers try to quickly resolve a stubborn budget stalemate that dogged them for much of last year.
The logjam between the U.S. Congress and the White House over federal spending left undone 11 of the 13 bills needed to fund the government. Government agencies have been operating since October under a series of stopgap funding arrangements.
The new stopgap spending bill, which was cleared by the House of Representatives on Wednesday and now goes to President Bush for his signature, will keep the government running until the end of this month.
By that time Republican leaders hope to win passage of a $385 billion "omnibus" package, grouping all of the remaining spending bills.
"These bills are vital to start our economic engine again," said Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, the incoming chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, which oversees government spending.
The budget impasse grew out of a year of fierce clashes between Congress and the White House over government spending. But Bush's political clout and his calls for spending restraint, were boosted by the key role he played in helping Republicans to victory in congressional elections in November.
Democrats, and many Republicans, had wanted to spend at least $9 billion more in 2003 than the White House, saying key priorities such as education, health care and homeland security were being shortchanged.
They may try to add funds to the package when the Senate takes it up, possibly next week, in an initial test of the slim new Republican majority in the chamber. "We will voice as strongly as we can our opposition to these cuts," said Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota.
A quick resolution of the spending stalemate will let the new Republican-led Congress focus on next year's federal budget and its top policy priority -- a new round of tax cuts meant to jolt the flagging U.S. economy.
Bush on Tuesday unveiled a $674 billion plan to scrap taxes investors pay on dividends and speed up income tax reductions. Wrapping the tax cuts in the budget process will allow them to be passed by a simple majority in the Senate, rather than the 60 votes usually required.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=2019912
|
| | | | | | | |
| |
blocks-left.jpg
blocks-left.jpg
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
| |
Article Rating |
|
|
| |
|
| |
Average Score: 3
Votes: 1
|
|
|
| |
|
blocks-left.jpg
|
Online Stats: 
