Stimulus Bill Passes Senate Despite Texas Opposition

$838 Billion dollar spending bill now heads to a House-Senate conference committee

WASHINGTON, DC, Feb. 10, 2009 -- The U.S. Senate today passed an $838 billion dollar spending bill designed to stimulate the slumping U.S. economy.

Despite calls for bipartisan support from President Obama, only three Republican senators, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania joined in supporting passage, with neither senator from Texas signing on.

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and Sen. John Cornyn both registered votes against motion to limit debate (cloture) yesterday, and on the passage of the bill today, and both issued strong statements in opposition.

On the cloture vote yesterday, Sen. Hutchison said "At a time when American families and businesses are facing economic hardship, any ‘stimulus’ should target job creation while being mindful of taxpayer burden and the growing deficit. This 778 page legislation, which will cost the American people a little more than $1 billion per page, is wrongly focused on spending programs that won’t effectively create jobs.

"Furthermore, some of this spending extends out as far as a decade, years after we have fought through this downturn. I believe that the best way to jumpstart our economy is through targeted tax cuts that quickly put money back in the hands of America’s small businesses and families. These tax cuts should work in concert with a limited spending program that emphasizes projects our government is going to do anyway, moving forward military construction, infrastructure and transportation improvements to spur job growth in Texas communities."

On the vote for passage today, Sen. Cornyn issued a statement saying "“I support President Obama’s call for swift action to revive the nation’s economy and put Americans back to work. Unfortunately, this proposal fails on both accounts and instead relies on bloated Washington programs, digging our country deeper and deeper into debt, and passing the IOUs to our children and grandchildren. This is unacceptable.

“I am disappointed that what could have been a bipartisan success has resulted in a bill narrowly passed by the Senate with the support of only three Republicans. Overspending is what landed our nation in the economic turmoil we find ourselves in today, and the partisan spending bill passed by Senate Democrats only exacerbates this irresponsible behavior—increasing our nation’s debt limit by nearly two trillion dollars to $12.14 trillion."


The bill will now go to a conference committee that will iron out differences between the Senate bill passed today, and the House version, which passed on Jan. 28, and would spend $819 billion. The House bill passed with no Republican support.

Obama has hopes of signing the bill before President's Day on Monday. On being informed of it's Senate passage, Obama said "That's good news, It's a good start."