Senate Passes Funding As Democrats Relent

By Helen Dewar
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 23, 2004; Page A01

The Senate approved a long-overdue $328 billion bill to fund most federal agencies yesterday after Democrats abandoned a fight over overtime pay, food labeling and other contentious issues that had held up the legislation.  The huge catchall measure, passed 65 to 28, goes to President Bush, who plans to sign it soon, according to Republicans. The legislation provides a $6 billion increase over current funding, including more money for health and school programs, a 4.1 percent pay raise for federal workers, and $2.4 billion to combat the global spread of AIDS, all of which could have been wiped out if the impasse had continued.  Also included were nearly 8,000 home-state projects -- for museums, crop research and other trophies for constituents during an election year -- that proved irresistible to many senators.  The vote came on a day when the administration, under pressure from conservatives concerned about the increase in spending under the president, announced that the 2005 budget will not grow more than 1 percent in areas other than defense and homeland security. In an event in New Mexico yesterday, Bush said that he will seek to boost anti-terrorism funding by nearly 10 percent, with the largest portion going to the FBI. The bill passed yesterday will finance 11 government departments, the District of Columbia and foreign aid for the fiscal year that began in October, covering activities ranging from preschool programs to space exploration. It also allows the administration to relax overtime rules for many white-collar workers and to delay for two years a requirement that meat and other food be labeled to identify the country of origin. It permits media conglomerates to buy local television stations reaching up to 39 percent of the national audience -- less than the 45 percent cap favored by the administration but more than the current 35 percent limit.  Other provisions authorize taxpayer-financed vouchers to help poor children in the District attend private schools, ease reporting requirements for gun purchases and continue the ban on travel by Americans to Cuba.  These are the controversies that threatened to derail the bill, which passed the House in December, only to have Senate Democrats block it in hopes of forcing concessions from the administration and GOP congressional leaders.  Democrats were especially angry over the overtime rule change, which both chambers had gone on record as opposing. Republican leaders argued it was needed to reflect modern workplace needs and practices, while Democrats denounced it as a sop to businesses that could cost up to 8 million workers a right to overtime pay that has existed since the 1930s.  Democrats continued to block the spending bill on a procedural vote when Congress reconvened Tuesday but conceded they could not sustain a filibuster. Republicans refused to consider changes and kept up pressure for speedy passage, suggesting Democrats would be to blame for any funding losses.  It was the second consecutive year Congress missed its appropriations deadline by months. Republicans blamed the Democrats last year and were embarrassed this year when they did only somewhat better, by passing the bill in January rather than February. But they won by hanging tough on issues that are priorities for the White House or GOP congressional leaders, sidelining several politically difficult disputes, at least for the time being.   "The country demands that we complete action on this bill," said Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.). The way for passage was cleared when, on another procedural vote, 16 Democrats joined most Republicans in a 61 to 32 vote -- one vote more than the 60 needed -- to end the stalling tactics and force a final vote. Among Washington-area senators, only Paul S. Sarbanes (D-Md.) voted to continue the delay.  Earlier, Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) said he thought Democrats had made their point and vowed to continue pressing for changes in the disputed provisions, starting with another attempt to overturn the overtime rule as part of a bill on class-action lawsuits headed for Senate action as early as next week.  In addition, some Republicans who favor country-of-origin food labeling said  Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) promised to deal with the issue -- which gained traction after the discovery of a case of mad cow disease in a Washington state herd -- in the first appropriations bill for the new fiscal year.  Even as the $328 billion bill was about to pass, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) renewed his attack on the administration's overtime proposal, charging that it means military personnel could wind up excluded from overtime pay in future civilian jobs if they received specialized training while in uniform.  Labor Department officials denied the charge, saying no veterans will be affected unless they are professionals. They said any misconceptions will be addressed in new administrative rules.  The "omnibus" spending measure, containing seven bills that Congress was unable to pass separately, will provide funding through Sept. 30 for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Labor, State, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs. Funding for the Pentagon and homeland security was approved earlier.  Some of the biggest domestic spending increases apply to veterans' health care, biomedical research, schools and highway projects. But Republicans said discretionary spending would increase less than 3 percent overall, lower than most other recent years.  The 4.1 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees is more than double the 2 percent increase that Bush proposed. Because lawmakers had not finished the appropriations bills, the president's proposal took effect Jan. 1. Officials have said the additional 2.1 percent will be awarded to workers retroactively.