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Senate OKs Budget, War Money

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The Associated Press

Published: December 19, 2007

WASHINGTON - The Senate on Tuesday night passed a spending bill combining funding for 14 Cabinet departments with $70 billion for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

By a bipartisan 76-17 vote, senators approved the massive bill, which bundles 11 annual appropriations bills funding domestic agencies and the foreign aid budget for the budget year that began Oct. 1.

Earlier, by a 70-25 vote in the Senate, President Bush and his GOP allies won a major victory in passing a measure providing $70 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without restrictions that Democrats had insisted on for weeks.

The twin votes sealed a budget deal between Bush and Democrats, ending months of battling over the budget.

However, the result on domestic spending created a divide between Republicans who thought it was a good deal, such as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, and those who said it was too expensive and larded with pork-barrel spending.

"We've held the line, achieved what everyone thought was the unachievable," McConnell said. "We are very proud of this bill."

House Republicans and a few Senate GOP conservatives felt otherwise and were disappointed that Bush hadn't taken a harder line in end-stage negotiations.

Bush was ready to sign the bill, assuming the war funding clears the House today.

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