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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Senate Oks $8.5 Billion Disaster-Relief Bill

Los Angeles Times

Defying a presidential veto threat, the Senate approved a spending bill Thursday that contains $8.5 billion in emergency funds for disaster-ravaged states, foreign peacekeeping operations and other projects but also includes a provision aimed at weakening the administration’s bargaining position in future budget negotiations.

It is that latter aspect that sparked the veto threat.

By a 78-22 vote, senators agreed to spend $5.5 billion to help more than two dozen states recover from recent record floods and other natural disasters and $1.8 billion for military activity aimed at keeping the peace in Bosnia and the Middle East.

The legislation is expected to be considered in the House next week.

The controversial part of the bill, sponsored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., seeks to avoid the type of federal government shutdowns that occurred in 1995 and ‘96 by providing automatic funding for government services and operations even if there is no budget on Oct. 1, the start of the government’s fiscal year.

Still stinging from their embarrassing role in a budget impasse that led to the previous government shutdowns, Republicans pressed for an automatic funding provision that would retain government operations at 100 percent of the existing level. An earlier version of the proposal had called for providing only 98 percent of current funds, but - in an effort to seek White House cooperation - GOP leaders agreed to the full spending level.

Despite days of behind-the-scenes negotiations aimed at finding a compromise to the “no shutdown” provision, Democrats conceded they couldn’t stop the GOP majority from voting to retain it. The vote to keep it strictly followed the party breakdown in the Senate, 55-45.