Senate OKs $94.5-Billion Spending Bill

The Senate sent President Bush a $94.5-billion emergency spending bill Thursday, meeting his funding requests for America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and providing new aid to Gulf Coast hurricane victims.

The 98-1 vote on the compromise House-Senate legislation gave much-needed funds to support U.S. troops overseas. Most of the money -- $66 billion -- goes to the Pentagon for military operations.

Bush praised Congress for providing the money to “fight terrorism, defend our homeland, enforce our borders and fulfill our moral obligation to help our fellow Americans in need.”

The bill, which Bush signed later in the day, would bring to almost $320 billion the tally for the campaign in Iraq and $89 billion for the war in Afghanistan.

Only Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) voted against the bill. He is opposed to a provision endorsing Bush’s $873-billion “cap” on the annual appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. Specter is pushing for $7 billion in additional money for education and health programs.

Still, there is increasing concern in Congress about the cost of the war in Iraq and the fact that the spending is monitored on a set of loosely policed books that are kept separate from the rest of government operations.

The bill contains $3.7 billion for Louisiana flood control projects.

Louisiana Sens. Mary L. Landrieu, a Democrat, and David Vitter, a Republican, are confident that their state will receive $4.2 billion.