Senate approves $55 billion in Commerce, Justice, science spending
The appropriations measure now moves to conference with the House, which passed a $53.5 billion version in July.
The Senate approved a $55 billion Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations bill on a veto-proof 75-19 margin, although GOP leaders won a symbolic test of party unity in support of President Bush's budget request.
The move by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., to commit the bill back to the Appropriations Committee with instructions to cut $3.2 billion, or down to Bush's request, failed on a 44-50, mostly party-line vote with a few defections.
It nonetheless cheered GOP spending hawks, who have privately been looking for a harder line from their leadership in the appropriations fight.
Both Republican leaders are from relatively poor states dependent on federal largesse, and voted in favor of the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development spending bill, for example, similarly at $3.1 billion above Bush's request.
McConnell in particular -- a member of the Appropriations Committee up for re-election in 2008 -- has been under scrutiny from conservatives.
"The American people demand that Congress get serious about restraining spending. We can pass the buck ... or we can make the choices necessary to responsibly legislate," McConnell said on the floor.
But whereas Lott Tuesday voted against the Commerce-Justice-Science measure on final passage, McConnell supported it -- perhaps sending a mixed signal as to whether he will be a Bush ally in the likely budget showdown.
The McConnell-Lott motion failed as Democrats and a few Republicans blasted it. Labor-Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Arlen Specter, R-Pa., was among the toughest critics.
The move would "constitute an abandonment, a surrender of Congress' authority to participate in the appropriations process," Specter said.
"What programs would you cut? Stand up; let me see you; let me hear you. Should we cut funding for the FBI? I don't hear anyone responding on that," said Appropriations Chairman Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.
Majority Whip Richard Durbin, D-Ill., contrasted Bush's opposition to $3.2 billion extra "to make our streets safe at home" to his $192 billion additional request for the Iraq war, which promises to be a familiar Democratic refrain throughout the fall.
The Commerce-Justice-Science bill moves to conference with the House, which passed a $53.5 billion version in July.
Democrats hope to send the bill to Bush's desk individually to test his veto pen, most likely after they make the Labor-HHS measure his first veto of an fiscal 2008 appropriations bill.
Senators added $1 billion in emergency funds to reimburse NASA for repairs made after the 2003 Space Shuttle Columbia explosion, boosting the bill's price tag to about $55.4 billion. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., lost a bid to trim NASA funds by $150 million and shift the money to the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program on a 70-23 vote.