President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan has passed the Senate and is on its way to difficult House-Senate negotiations.
Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote and they're already signaling they'll play hardball to preserve more than $108 billion in spending cuts made last week in Senate dealmaking. Obama wants to restore cuts in funds for school construction jobs and help for cash-starved states.
Those cuts are among the major differences between the $819 billion House version of Obama's plan and a Senate bill costing $838 billion. Obama has warned of a deepening economic crisis if Congress fails to act. He wants a bill completed by the weekend.
The bill backed by the White House survived a key test vote in the Senate Monday despite strong Republican opposition, and Democratic leaders vowed to deliver legislation for President Barack Obama's signature within a few days.
Now, a conference committee has to hash out hte differences between the House and Senate versions to come up with one bill to send to the President. The differences between the House and Senate versions are detailed here. More here.
The three Republicans voting yesterday to end debate on the Senate bill were Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. So they are probably the three who voted for the package as well. Details of the vote will be posted on senate.gov in about an hour.
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