The US Congress gave final approval to legislation providing the auto industry with $25 billion in loans, lifting an offshore oil-drilling ban and funding the government until the next president takes office.
The legislation, approved by the Senate 78-12, spends $602 billion for the departments of defence, homeland security and veterans affairs. It also funds most of the rest of the government at current levels until March 6. More than $6 billion will be spent on about 2,000 pet projects known as earmarks, according to the Washington-based Taxpayers for Common Sense.
Republicans in both chambers said they were given little opportunity to review a bill providing the bulk of the money appropriated this year by Congress. The legislation was written “almost exclusively by staff members and a small handful of members” and there were “no meetings in which to argue policy or discuss grievances that members may have had,” said Senator Thad Cochran, the top Republican on the chamber’s Appropriations Committee.
Bush is likely to sign the bill, which was approved earlier this week by the House. The legislation will bring an end to Democrats’ budget battles with President George W Bush. He threatened in his State of the Union address to veto any spending that didn’t slash earmarks by half.
