Senate passes transportation spending bill by veto-proof margin

The Senate on Wednesday approved, 88-7, a $106 billion Transportation-Housing and Urban Development spending measure that blows past President Bush's proposed budget limits, adding nearly $6 billion to his request.

The veto-proof majority was telling for the broad bipartisan support even among GOP leaders -- Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., voted for the bill.

The vote suggests that support among Senate Republicans for Bush's threatened vetoes of domestic appropriations is not as strong as in the House, where Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, has led a successful effort to hold the line at Bush's overall $933 billion discretionary spending cap. He has demonstrated the ability to sustain vetoes on all but one FY08 spending bill: the earmark-laden Energy and Water measure, the reason being "pork," as House Budget ranking member Paul Ryan, R-Wis., put it.

While House Republicans have blasted Democrats for "bloated" spending bills, the tone among Senate Republicans has been more reserved, except for vocal objections from a handful of conservatives.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., a former appropriator who spent years cutting deals on spending bills, regards Senate Republicans as reasonable in the appropriations fight, sources said.

The traditional spirit of bipartisan cooperation in the Senate on spending led Reid to initially propose simply splitting the overall $23 billion difference with Bush, thinking that could lead to quick agreement. But backed up by hard-line House Republicans, Bush refused to give an inch.

"I expect we are going to see bills vetoed by the president, and Congress will have an opportunity to debate and decide how it wants to respond, with an override or go back to work and try to cut back on some of the spending the president is complaining about," said Senate Appropriations ranking member Thad Cochran, R-Miss., who battled the White House over spending when Republicans were in control, particularly for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. "I'm not going to pre-judge how we'll respond."

Appropriations bills generally draw bipartisan support from committee members, but the debate on the Transportation-HUD measure was striking for the praise from Senate Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Christopher (Kit) Bond, R-Mo. Bond blasted the Bush request as "unacceptable" for shortchanging housing subsidies for low-income individuals and families, important particularly in urban areas such as St. Louis and Kansas City, arguing the request could cause "particular hardship on seniors and persons with disabilities."

Bond also lauded a provision he authored with Transportation-HUD Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., to provide $75 million the administration did not request to provide shelter for homeless veterans.

Overall the discretionary portion of the bill, or accounts not funded by fuel taxes but by general revenues, exceeds Bush's request by $3.1 billion. The bill would erase proposed HUD cuts of almost 3 percent, instead boosting the agency's budget by nearly 6 percent to $38.7 billion.