House adopts $1.1 trillion spending bill; GOP contends era of big government returns

House adopts spending measure over GOP protests

WASHINGTON — The House has passed a massive year-end spending bill awarding generous funding boosts to domestic programs despite massive budget deficits.

The wrapup measure totals $1.1 trillion, combining six spending bills for 10 Cabinet departments into a 1,088-page bundle packed with more than 5,000 back-home projects sought by lawmakers.

The 221-202 vote sends the House-Senate compromise measure to the Senate, which may vote on it this weekend before sending it to President Barack Obama.

The bill combines $447 billion in operating budgets for 10 Cabinet departments with more than $600 billion for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid

The measure is advancing as the government registered a $1.4 trillion deficit for the 2009 budget year.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite a massive budget deficit, House Democrats pressed ahead Thursday with a huge spending measure combining major spending boosts for domestic agencies and foreign aid with more than 5,000 back-home projects sought by lawmakers.

The 1,088-page, $1.1 trillion measure would provide $447 billion in operating budgets for 10 Cabinet departments, with increases averaging almost 10 percent. There would be more than $600 billion in payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.

Approval of the House-Senate compromise bill would send it to the Senate before it could go to President Barack Obama.

The generosity comes on top of an infusion of cash to domestic agencies in February’s economic stimulus bill and a $410 billion measure in March that also bestowed budget increases well above inflation.

“There is no question that the era of big government has returned to Washington, D.C.,” said Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee. “This package of spending bills … simply spends too much money and makes a mockery of our legislative process.”

Blending increases for veterans’ programs and foreign aid with help for car dealers, the legislation wraps together six of the 12 annual appropriations bills. Just the $626 billion defense bill would remain. That’s being held back as a way to attach must-pass legislation such as an increase in the national debt.

Democrats made no apologies for all the largess, saying that domestic programs starved under eight years of President George W. Bush.

“I see these bills as an opportunity to reverse years of neglect — neglect to our roads and bridges, neglect to our lower income neighbors and friends, neglect to our education system, neglect to our veterans,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

There’s plenty of cash remaining, however, from the stimulus bill. Republicans have urged a freeze in such spending.

For the 789 Chrysler dealers closed in June and more than 1,350 GM dealers expected to be shut down next year, the bill would offer an improved binding arbitration process to challenge the automakers’ decisions.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, protested a provision to let Amtrak passengers carry handguns in their checked baggage, provided the guns are unloaded and locked in a secure container. The policy would go into place within a year.

Republicans claimed the measure would mean a 33 percent increase for foreign aid and the State Department, but once emergency funding shuffles are taken into account, the increase is more like 14 percent.

The measure rejects most spending cuts suggested in May by Obama. A program that delivers heating subsidies for the poor would receive $5.1 billion, almost 40 percent more than Obama requested.

Obama also sought to kill a program that helps states with the cost of jailing illegal immigrants charged with crimes, currently budgeted at $400 million. Lawmakers cut it by $70 million.