US Senate closing in on $626b spending bill

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WASHINGTON, Dec 19 (AP): The Senate comes in shortly after a snowy dawn to vote on legislation ensuring that the troops are armed and the jobless don't lose their benefits - and to take one more step toward a Christmas week showdown over health care.
The planned early morning vote Saturday on the $626 billion defense spending bill and sundry other must-pass matters was the outcome of an acrimonious struggle between Democrats determined to pass a health care bill this year and Republicans intent on using delaying tactics to stop them.
The defense bill itself, which contains $128 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a 3.4 per cent pay raise for the military, enjoyed wide support.
But there was GOP discontent over the Democratic decision to use the bill as the engine to carry several short-term extensions of programs set to expire because of the failure of Congress to deal with them separately.
Those include two-month extensions of unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless, health care subsidies for those out of work, highway and transit funding, three provisions of the anti-terror USA Patriot Act and legislation shielding doctors from a steep cut in Medicare payments.
Democrats in turn scolded Republicans for forcing a 1 a.m. vote Friday to end a GOP-led filibuster and then requiring the full 30 hours, under Senate rules, before a final vote could be staged. Republicans have acknowledged they will use every means possible to stop the health care bill from coming to a final vote this year.
Republicans are "using the military, the soldiers, as pawns in this political game," said Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.
Before leaving for the holidays, the Senate must deal with one other politically sensitive issue, raising the debt ceiling, currently at $12.1 trillion, so the Treasury can continue to borrow.
Defence Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Friday issued a joint statement urging immediate passage because the latest stopgap measure to fund the Pentagon expired at midnight Friday. "Passage today will provide important support for our foreign policy and national security priorities and ensure continuity of funding for our troops in combat and for all of the Department of Defence," they said.