Senate approves supplemental spending measure

The Senate late Tuesday approved a supplemental spending measure for fiscal 2001 providing $6.5 billion this year for defense and a variety of other government programs.

The final vote on the FY01 supplemental was 98-1.

On the way to approval, senators voted 94-3 to reject a proposal by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Fritz Hollings, D-S.C., to eliminate refund checks planned for later this month.

Earlier Tuesday, the Senate voted 54-42 against a Democratic proposal to make it harder for lawmakers to spend Social Security and Medicare trust fund surpluses. Senators also voted 54-53 against a mechanism to trigger cuts to prevent encroachment on Social Security trust revenues.

Meanwhile, work continued Tuesday on fiscal 2002 appropriations, National Journal News Service reported.

In the House, the National Science Foundation, NASA and several housing programs received big increases under the FY02 VA-HUD spending bill approved Tuesday afternoon by the House VA- HUD Appropriations Subcommittee.

Overall, the bill, which was passed by a voice vote, would provide about $84.1 billion in discretionary funds, a $790 million increase over what President Bush requested and $3.6 billion above what was funded in FY01.

Also Tuesday, the House Appropriations Committee avoided lengthy debate over gun control and medical marijuana and made relatively quick work of the FY02 Commerce-Justice-State bill.

The legislation, which includes $38.5 billion in discretionary funds--a $1 billion increase over FY01--was approved by a simple voice vote.