Senate clears stimulus after marathon vote

The Senate cleared a $787 billion economic stimulus
package to President Obama late Friday, giving him the most significant victory
of his 25-day-old administration.

The 60-38 vote in the upper chamber came hours after
the House passed the conference report without the backing of a single
Republican and capped a month of mostly partisan debate over the president’s
vision for lifting the economy out of one of the worst recessions in decades.

{mosads}But with the help of three GOP centrists in the
Senate, Democratic leaders met their deadline of getting the 1,073-page bill to
Obama’s desk before Presidents Day.

White House officials said
the president could sign the stimulus bill as soon as Monday and plans on
having a signing ceremony.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) called the vote
“historic and transformational” and lashed out at Republican critics
whom she said supported a “do-nothing approach.”

Not every House Democrat embraced the plan. The
246-183 House vote included seven who voted ‘no’. Many grumbled that Pelosi
posted the text of the enormous conference report online less than 15 hours
before they voted for passage.

Congress’s consideration of the plan came to a formal
close when Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) cast the 60^th vote in the
upper chamber late Friday evening.

In an unusual turn of events, the Senate began voting
before sundown to accommodate Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.), an observant
Jew, who preferred to cast his vote before the start of the Sabbath. Democratic
and Republican leaders agreed to hold the vote open for nearly five hours to
allow Brown to attend a memorial service for his late mother in Ohio.

Brown’s support was
critical because Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), who is battling cancer, did not
plan to return to Washington for the vote.

The package directs $500
billion in federal spending on infrastructure, education, public housing and
other Democratic priorities, as well as $287 billion in tax relief, including a
$70 billion one-year freeze of the Alternative Minimum Tax, which Republicans
had called for.

The centerpiece is Obama’s
Make Work Pay tax credit, which would save individuals up to $400 and couples
up to $800. Senate and House negotiators chopped almost $30 billion off the
proposal to bring the cost of the entire package under $800 billion, a demand
made by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.).

White House officials and
Democratic leaders held marathon-negotiating sessions this week in a frantic
effort to meet the self-imposed deadline.

The accelerated talks came
in the midst of a swirl of distracting setbacks over Obama’s personnel choices.

Two of Obama’s Cabinet
choices withdrew their names from consideration in recent days: the designated
Commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), who cited irreconcilable policy
differences with the president; and Obama’s choice to head the Department of
Health and Human Services, Tom Daschle, who became ensnared in a tax scandal.

While the final passage is
a win for the president, the lack of bipartisan support gave Republicans an
avenue for criticism. They argued during floor debate Friday that Democrats had
shut them out of the process, a charge that resonated in the aftermath of
Gregg’s resignation.

Under pressure to reach a
deal before the Presidents Day recess, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid
(D-Nev.) spearheaded the final stage of talks, holing up in his office for
hours with the three GOP centrists, including Specter.

Reid announced a final
agreement Wednesday afternoon before many House lawmakers, including Energy and
Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), had a chance to review its details.
Waxman was one of three House Democrats selected to negotiate the deal.

Rank-and-file House
Democratic lawmakers had threatened to scuttle the deal over cuts to state aid
and school construction but ultimately fell back into line.

Reid’s rushed announcement
prompted speculation that he tried to pressure House Democrats into supporting
the agreement before they had a chance to fully review it.

Democratic negotiators and
Democratic aides dismissed that notion, noting that Reid kept Pelosi apprised
continuously during his meetings with the centrist Republicans and White House
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.

In the end, House Democrats
followed Pelosi’s lead and voted for the package overwhelmingly though not
unanimously.

Democratic Reps. Bobby
Bright (Ala.), Peter DeFazio (Ore.), Parker Griffith (Ala.), Walt Minnick
(Idaho), Collin Peterson (Minn.), Heath Shuler (N.C.) and Gene Taylor (Miss.)
voted no. Of the group, only DeFazio voted for the version that passed the
House last month.

Reid and Pelosi made
several major concessions to retain the support of centrist Republican senators
for the package. Specter had threatened to pull his support if the final
version differed significantly from the legislation that passed the Senate.

Negotiators retained the
$70 billion AMT patch favored by Republicans but opposed by conservative House
Democrats who demanded its cost be offset by spending cuts or tax increases.

Leaders also eliminated a
school construction fund estimated to cost between $16 billion and $20 billion.
The fund was eliminated at the request of Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), who argued that such
construction is a state responsibility and did not want to set a precedent for federal
responsibility.

The final agreement split
the difference between the two chambers on a state fiscal stabilization fund.

Lawmakers allocated $54
billion in state aid, a compromise between the $79 billion allocated by the
House and the $39 billion approved by the Senate.

Senate negotiators made a
concession to House lawmakers by agreeing to subsidize 65 percent of the health
care premiums of unemployed workers, but they shortened the span of coverage
from one year to nine months. The Senate had initially voted to subsidize 50
percent of the cost.

Democrats had planned to
post the bill Thursday morning but failed to do so until late in the evening as
negotiators continued to haggle over details. One outstanding issue was a tax
provision allowing businesses greater flexibility to write off losses incurred
in 2008.

Republicans favored the
proposal, which had little support among House Democrats. In the end,
negotiators decided to expand the tax credit slightly, allowing small
businesses with receipts under $15 million to carry-back 2008 losses to reduce
the tax burden on profits earned in the previous five years.

The ratio of spending to
tax relief in the package is just more than 35 percent, close to the 60-40
breakdown first proposed by Obama. Democrats initially criticized that split as
overly skewed toward tax relief.

Sam
Youngman contributed to this report.