Pentagon bill poised to clear Senate hurdle
Sep 27, 7:32 AM (ET)
By ANDREW TAYLOR
WASHINGTON (AP) - A huge spending bill that combines help for Gulf Coast disaster victims and loans for U.S. automakers with record spending for the Pentagon and veterans is poised to clear a key hurdle in the Senate.
The year-end budget measure also would lift a quarter-century ban on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. That's a key victory for Republicans.
Saturday's vote on a procedural motion would set a final vote for no later than Sunday.
After hard lobbying, automakers won up to $25 billion in low-interest loans to help them develop technologies and retool factories to meet new standards for cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.
The measure is fueled by a need to pass stopgap funding to keep the government running past the current budget year ending Sept. 30. The stopgap measure is needed because of a breakdown in the budget process this year, and under it, domestic agencies would be funded through March 6 or until their regular budgets pass.
The measure is dominated by $488 billion for the Pentagon, $40 billion for the Homeland Security Department and $73 billion for veterans' programs and military base construction projects - amounting to about 60 percent of the budget work Congress must pass each year.
The budget legislation is the result of months of wrangling between Democrats who control Congress and the lame-duck Bush administration and its allies on Capitol Hill. The administration won approval of the defense budget while Democrats wrested concessions from the White House on disaster aid, heating subsidies for the poor and smaller spending items.
The lifting of the offshore oil drilling moratorium does not mean drilling is imminent. But it could set the stage for the government to offer leases in some Atlantic federal waters as early as 2011.
The legislation also contains 2,322 pet projects totaling $6.6 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group. That included 2,025 in the defense portion alone that cost a total of $4.9 billion.
