Big spending bill awaits Bush signature

WASHINGTON — Automakers gained $25 billion in taxpayer-subsidized loans, and oil companies won elimination of a long-standing ban on drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as the Senate passed a huge spending bill Saturday.

The 78-12 vote sent the $634 billion measure to President Bush, who was expected to sign it even though it spends more money and has more pet projects than he wanted.

The measure is needed to keep the government operating beyond the budget year, which ends Tuesday. Bush's signature would mean Congress could avoid a lame-duck session after the Nov. 4 election.

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the bill "stands as a reminder of the failure of the Democratic Congress to fund the government in regular order." But, he said, it "puts the United States one step closer to ending our dependence on foreign sources of energy" by lifting the offshore-drilling ban and opening up oil-shale reserves in the West.

The Pentagon is in line for a record budget. In addition to $70 billion approved this summer for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department would receive $488 billion, a 6 percent increase. The spending bill also offers aid to victims of Midwest flooding and Gulf Coast hurricanes.

Such a bill usually would dominate the end-of-session agenda on Capitol Hill. But it went below the radar screen because attention was focused on the congressional bailout of Wall Street.

The spending measure settles dozens of battles that have brewed between the Democrats who run Congress and the White House and its GOP allies.

The administration won approval of the defense budget. Democrats wrested concessions from the White House on $23 billion for disaster-ravaged states, a doubling of low-income heating subsidies, and smaller spending items such as $24 million more for food shipments to the elderly.

The loan package for automakers would give them $25 billion in below-market loans, costing taxpayers $7.5 billion to subsidize the retooling of plants and development of technologies to help carmakers build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.

Companies would not have to begin repaying the loans for five years, drawing objections from Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., who predicted they would return for more help when the money is due.

Republicans made ending the coastal-drilling ban a central campaign issue this summer as $4-plus-a-gallon gasoline stoked voter anger and turned public opinion in favor of more exploration.

The action does not mean drilling is imminent and leaves the oil-rich eastern Gulf of Mexico off-limits. But it could set the stage for leases to be offered in some Atlantic federal waters as early as 2011.

Also in the bill is money to avert a shortfall in Pell college-aid grants and solve problems in the Women, Infants and Children program delivering foods to the poor.

In addition to the Pentagon's budget, there is $40 billion for the Homeland Security Department and $73 billion for veterans' programs and military-base construction projects. Combined with the Defense Department's spending, that amounts to about 60 percent of the budget work Congress must pass each year.

Democrats came under criticism from the GOP for short-circuiting the normal process for a spending bill after it became clear that Republicans would force difficult votes on the drilling ban.

Bush had threatened to veto bills that did not cut the number and cost of pet projects in half or that caused agency budgets to exceed his request.

Democrats ignored the edict as they drafted the plan, and the White House apparently has backed down.

Taxpayers for Common Sense, a watchdog group, discovered 2,322 pet projects totaling $6.6 billion. That included 2,025, with a cost of $4.9 billion, in the defense portion.

House OKs shipping

atomic fuel to India

The House voted overwhelmingly Saturday to approve a landmark pact that would allow the U.S. to provide nuclear materials to India.

The deal faces obstacles in the Senate. Hoping to raise pressure on that chamber, President Bush quickly issued a statement praising House passage and prodding the Senate to do the same.

The House approved the measure 298-117.

The accord reverses three decades of U.S. policy by shipping atomic fuel to India in return for international inspections of India's civilian reactors. Military reactors are not affected.

Supporters say it would bring India's atomic program under closer scrutiny. Critics say it would boost India's nuclear arsenal and spark an arms race in South Asia.