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Democrats push $410 billion bill through House
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Published: February 26, 2009
WASHINGTON
The Democratic-controlled House pushed through a $410 billion bill yesterday that increases spending on domestic programs, bristles with earmarks and chips away at policies left behind by the Bush administration.
The vote was 245-178, largely along party lines.
Republicans criticized the bill as too costly -- particularly on the heels of a $787 billion stimulus bill that President Obama signed last week. But Democrats jabbed back.
"The same people who drove the economy into the ditch are now complaining about the size of the tow truck," said Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass.
From the Republican side, Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas said that the legislation was "going to grow the government 8.3 percent ... but the family budget which has to pay for the federal budget only grew at 1.3 percent last year."
The debate occurred one day after Obama told Congress in a prime-time televised speech that he intends to cut deficits in half over the next four years, and a day before he was to submit tax and spending plans for the coming year.
Officials said that Obama's first budget would call for a permanent tax cut of $400 for lower- and middle-class workers and $800 for families, a break modeled after the temporary provision in the economic-stimulus legislation.
He also will call for $634 billion over 10 years as a down payment on health-care reform, the start of an effort to provide coverage for an estimated 48 million uninsured people. Achieving that goal could cost much more.
Obama also intends to ask legislators to approve a new cap-and-trade system of limits and pollution allowances, especially for industries such as utilities with coal-burning power plants.
The program could help reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and generate revenue to help pay for other elements of an agenda that includes health care and education reform.
The spending bill that cleared the House drew the support of 229 Democrats and 16 Republicans. There were 159 Republicans and 20 Democrats opposed. From North Carolina, Reps. Virginia Foxx, R-5th, and Howard Coble, R-6th, voted against the bill; Mel Watt, D-12th, voted for it.
In a symbolic bow to the recession, Democrats included in the bill a prohibition on a cost-of-living increase for members of Congress for the year.
Overall, the legislation would provide increases of about 8 percent for the federal agencies it covered, about $32 billion more than last year.
The bill is intended to allow smooth functioning of the government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30. The Senate has yet to vote on its version.
After persuading legislators to keep earmarks off the stimulus bill, Obama made no such attempt on the first nonemergency spending bill of his presidency. The result was that legislators added billions of dollars for pet projects -- a total of 8,570 earmarks at a cost of $7.7 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense. Majority Democrats declined to provide the number of earmarks but said that the cost was $3.8 billion, or 5 percent less than a year ago.
Among the earmarks was one sponsored by Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., who secured $200,000 for a "tattoo-removal violence-outreach program" in Los Angeles. Aides said that the money would pay for a tattoo-removal machine that could help gang members or others shed visible signs of their past, and anyone benefiting would be required to perform community service.
Rep. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said that the bill included at least 12 earmarks for clients of PMA Group, a lobbying company now at the center of a federal corruption investigation.
"It's simply not responsible to allow a soon-to-be-criminally indicted lobbying firm to win funding, all borrowed, in this bill," he said. No charges have been filed against the firm or its principals, although the company's offices were raided earlier this month, and it has announced plans to disband by the end of the month.
Federal prosecutors are investigating PMA Group's founder and president, Paul Magliochetti, who is a former top aide to Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that finances defense programs.
In remarks on the House floor, Rep. John Boehner, the Republican leader, urged Obama to veto the legislation, because of the earmarks.
At the White House, press secretary Robert Gibbs responded only in general terms whether that was possible. "There is great concern in this building and by the president about earmarks," he said. "Without having looked specifically at a piece of legislation, I'm hesitant to throw out that four-letter word, ‘Veto.'"
After eight years without control of the White House, congressional Democrats also used the legislation to target several policies of former President Bush.
Bush administration restrictions on travel to Cuba were loosened in the legislation, to permit more frequent visits and expand the list of family members permitted to make trips to see relatives in Cuba.
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