House votes to keep government running

WASHINGTON -- Congress scrambled to finish its work for the year last week amid chaotic and contentious debate over plans to revive a struggling economy.

Lawmakers advanced a bill that would fund the government through March 2009 and fought over measures to temporarily extend popular tax breaks that have either expired or are set to expire.

They pledged to work into the new week if necessary to reach agreement on a $700 billion bailout of imperiled financial institutions. That followed a week of sometimes-bitter negotiations over how to structure the financial rescue.

HOUSE PASSES STOPGAP SPENDING BILL

In the meantime, the House passed an appropriations bill that keeps the government running past the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 fiscal year. The stopgap measure, approved 370-58, keeps most federal spending at 2008 levels.

The defense, homeland security and veterans affairs budgets are exceptions. Those three spending bills are funded through September 2009 with increases over the previous year.

The measure allows for a new Congress next year to craft the nine other annual appropriations bills.

Reps. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., Dean Heller, R-Nev., and Jon Porter, R-Nev., voted for the bill.

Opponents argued against $6.6 billion in earmarks for local projects added to the spending package.

The measure also contained nearly $23 billion for disaster relief and $7.5 billion in loans to prop up the domestic auto industry.

Republicans celebrated an end to a 25-year moratorium on coastal oil and gas drilling. The spending bill lets the drilling ban lapse, allowing oil exploration up to three miles from shore.

A key piece of the GOP energy agenda was for the moratorium to be lifted.

SENATE, HOUSE SPAR OVER TAX BREAKS

Senators overwhelmingly approved a tax bill that exposed a rift between the two chambers.

The Senate voted 93-2 for the measure that shelters 20 million Americans from being hit with the alternative minimum tax, extends dozens of expiring tax credits, provides disaster relief and offers renewable energy incentives.

Sens. John Ensign, R-Nev., and Harry Reid, D-Nev., voted for it.

The House broke up the Senate package into three different bills, a strategy that senators said could kill all the measures in the final days of the session.

The House insisted on offsetting the cost of one of the bills that includes energy tax credits, tax breaks for college tuition, families with children and business research and development. The offsets came by raising some taxes on oil companies and closing other business tax loopholes.

That done, the bill was passed 257-166. Berkley and Porter voted for it. Heller voted against it.

The House approved the alternative minimum tax patch 393-30. Berkley, Heller and Porter voted for it.

The House vote on disaster aid was 419-4. Berkley, Heller and Porter supported it.

HOUSE AUTHORIZES PENTAGON SPENDING

The House voted 392-39 to authorize about $611 million in defense spending for 2009.

The bill includes a 3.9 percent pay increase for military personnel and sets aside $68 billion to help fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It requires the president to report to Congress on any agreement reached with Iraq about U.S. forces in that country. However, Congress would not have to approve such an agreement.

Berkley, Heller and Porter voted for the bill.

REPUBLICANS BLOCK STIMULUS BILL

Senate Republicans killed a $56 billion measure that would have extended unemployment benefits, provided more money for food stamps and funded road and bridge projects.

Democrats considered the bill a follow-up to the economic stimulus checks sent to taxpayers earlier this year.

Republicans said the bill cost too much and would not help the economy.

The vote was 52-42, but 60 votes were necessary for the measure to advance.

Reid voted to advance the bill. Ensign opposed it.