The U.S. Senate has given final approval to a $787 billion economic-stimulus package backed by President Obama, with Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown returning to the Capitol from his mother’s wake to cast the 60th and deciding vote in favor of it.
The voting was held open for Brown, who cast his vote at 10:45 p.m. The final vote was 60-38. Voting began Friday night on the stimulus package that passed the House of Representatives earlier in the day by a 246-183 vote. Brown flew back to Washington on a plane provided by the White House, Brown’s office said, because the vote is “official business” and there are not commercial flights available that would allow him to cast his vote and then return to Ohio for his mother’s funeral Saturday morning. He will fly back to Ohio immediately after he votes. On Friday afternoon, no House Republicans voted in favor of the bill, and seven Democrats voted against it. In the House’s original bill, 11 Democrats and all of the Republicans voted against it. The Democrats hold a large enough majority in the House that they were still able to pass the legislation. Watch the stimulus pass without GOP support » The House and Senate originally passed different versions of the bill. The votes Friday are on the compromise version of the measure. The differences were reconciled Wednesday after a furious day of negotiations on Capitol Hill involving House and Senate leaders, administration officials and the three moderate Republican senators. But the written version of the legislation wasn’t available for lawmakers to view until around 11 p.m. Thursday. Some representatives expressed frustration over how little time they had to read the 1,000-plus-page bill.
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“You can’t be serious. This would be humorous if it wasn’t so sad,” said Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia. “What’s in it Have you read it” Rep. Zach Wamp, R-Tennessee, encouraged his colleagues to vote no. “Just because Republicans spent too much money after September 11 and lost our way on financial matters doesn’t mean the Democratic party should be allowed to wreck our ship of state. This is taking us quickly down the wrong road. Vote no,” Wamp said. Watch the GOP say ‘Americans deserve better’ » Other lawmakers, however, said they were hopeful the stimulus plan would get the economy back on track. “We know this bill alone will not solve all of our economic woes overnight. We know that the road back to economic stability and prosperity will require hard work over time,” said Rep. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colorado. “But this bill is the right size and scope necessary to truly help us turn things around.” Watch Speaker Pelosi tout the stimulus bill » Despite direct lobbying by the Obama administration in the past couple of weeks, the bill received no Republican support in the House. Rep. Anh “Joseph” Cao of Louisiana indicated earlier Friday that he was “leaning yes” on the bill, but he ended up voting against it. The Senate version that passed Tuesday got the support of three moderate Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania — after a bipartisan group worked out an agreement that trimmed billions from the bill. In the lead-up to Friday’s vote, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was calling on other Republican centrists in an attempt to convince more of them to vote for the measure, an aide said. The Senate’s version of the bill narrowly passed by a 61-37 vote — one more than needed. Reid was looking for additional votes out of an abundance of caution, the aide said, after learning that Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Massachusetts, who returned to Capitol Hill for votes this week, will not be present for the final vote because he returned to Florida to continue his recovery from brain cancer. Reid was concerned that if a Democratic senator gets sick or has some other unforeseen obligation, he could have trouble getting the bill passed, the aide said. Reid also was concerned because the three GOP moderates suggested that they did not want to provide the decisive 60th vote for passage, the aide said. Obama made an impassioned final plea earlier Friday for passage of the plan, arguing that it is a critical first step on the road to economic recovery. “I don’t need to tell you that we are in tough economic times,” Obama said to a group of business leaders at the White House hours before the most important congressional vote of his young administration. The stimulus package is likely to land on Obama’s desk by the Democratic leadership’s self-imposed deadline of Presidents Day on Monday. Taking no chances, the Democratic National Committee and Obama’s Organizing for America also are using Obama’s vast e-mail list to contact the president’s political supporters and point them to a new Web page for stories of people affected by the economic downturn. The goal is to drum up public support for the measure as Congress votes on it. CNNMoney: How the stimulus may affect your wallet The stories were collected last weekend from Obama supporters who attended one of 3,600 meetings held across the country to discuss the situation, according to the DNC. In all, 31,030 stories were submitted to the DNC and Organizing for America, a grassroots movement that grew out of the campaign. Read the stories The House, which had planned to vote on the package Thursday, was forced to wait until Friday after many rank-and-file Democrats who were unhappy with some spending cuts demanded time to read the compromise measure. iReport: Your thoughts on the stimulus Despite the grumblings of some House Democrats unhappy with the spending measures, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, said Thursday that she was pleased with the outcome of the negotiations. Read the compromise: Part 1 | Part 2 Here’s how the compromise bill is expected to affect individuals: Most individuals will get a $400 tax credit, and most couples will get an $800 credit. That amounts to an extra $13 a week in a person’s paycheck, starting in June. That’s less than what Obama campaigned on: $500 for individuals and $1,000 per couple. Many students will get $2,500 tuition tax credit. First-time home buyers may qualify for a tax credit of up to $8,000.
People who receive Social Security will get a one-time payment of $250. The overall package is estimated to be 35 percent tax cuts and 65 percent spending, Democratic sources said.
