Economic stimulus bill moves to Senate

The Senate lined up to advance the $827 billion economic stimulus legislation backed by the White House on Monday, and Democratic leaders vowed to deliver a bill to President Barack Obama's desk within days.

Still, key lawmakers braced for a difficult round of further negotiations aimed at producing a final House-Senate compromise.

"There is no reason we can't do this by the end of the week," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. He said he was prepared to hold the Senate in session into the Presidents Day weekend if necessary, and cautioned Republicans not to try and delay final progress.

He said passage would mark "the first step on the long road to recovery."

It takes 60 votes in the Senate to push the bill past a procedural hurdle raised by Republicans, and Democratic leaders expressed confidence they had the necessary support after Friday's agreement to trim the bill by about $100 billion. Another 60-vote majority would be needed Tuesday for Senate passage.

Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania said in advance they would break ranks and support the revised legislation. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., battling a brain tumor, was also available to vote.

"This bill has the votes to pass. We know that," conceded Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who has spoken daily in the Senate against the legislation.

Even so, in the hours before Monday's vote, he and other Republican opponents attacked it as too costly, and unlikely to have the desired effect on the economy. "This is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill," said Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn.

The two versions of the legislation are relatively close in size — $827 billion in the Senate and $819 billion in the House, and are similar in many respects.

Both include Obama's call for a tax cut for lower-income wage earners, as well as billions for unemployment benefits, food stamps, health care and other programs to help victims of the worst recession in decades. In a bow to the administration, they also include billions for development of new information technology for the health industry, and billions more to lay the groundwork for a new environmentally friendly industry that would help reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

At the same time, the differences are considerable.

The measure nearing approval in the Senate calls for more tax cuts and less spending than the House bill, largely because it includes a $70 billion provision to protect middle-class taxpayers from falling victim to the alternative minimum tax, which was intended to make sure the very wealthy don't avoid paying taxes.

Both houses provide for tax breaks for home buyers, but the Senate's provision is far more generous. The Senate bill also gives a tax break to purchasers of new cars.

Both houses provide $87 billion in additional funds for the Medicaid program, which provides health care to the low income. But the House and Senate differ on the formula to be used in distributing the money, a dispute that pits states against one another rather than Republicans against Democrats.

There are dozens of differences on spending.

The Senate proposed $450 million for NASA for exploration, for example, $50 million less than the House. It also eliminated the House's call for money to combat a potential flu pandemic.

On the other hand, the Senate bill calls for several billion more in spending for research at the National Institutes of Health, the result of an amendment backed last week by Specter