Deal struck on stimulus

Washington —- Moving with greater-than-expected urgency, House and Senate negotiators struck a deal Wednesday on a final version of a sweeping economic recovery package that could be sent to the president for his signature by the end of the week.

The new plan is budgeted at $789 billion, a figure about $50 billion less than the one attached to the Senate version of the bill that passed Tuesday.

Senate leaders said several House provisions were added to boost job creation, but the overall cost of the bill was trimmed largely by adjusting some tax provisions and scaling back the reach of some Medicaid funding.

Among items cut: an amendment by Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) that would have given home buyers a $15,000 tax break. But House Democrats succeeded in restoring some funds that were stripped out by a group of Senate moderates last week, including $44 billion in aid to struggling state governments and $6 billion for school construction and modernization.

It was not yet clear how much would be coming to Georgia, which had stood to receive $5.6 billion in the House version of the bill.

“The devil is always in the details,” said Bert Brantley, press secretary to Gov. Sonny Perdue. “We’ll look to see what the final bill looks like.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the final version of the bill “creates more jobs than the original Senate bill and spends less than the original House bill.” The original Senate bill was valued at $838 billion; the cost of the House package was estimated at $819 billion.

The small but key cadre of moderate Republicans whose support ensured passage of the Senate bill —- Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania —- said Wednesday that they would support the compromise agreement. They, along with some moderate Democrats, had suggested that if the bill deviated too much from the Senate package, they would not vote for it.

“This is obviously a very difficult vote,” Specter said. “But I believe it is indispensable that strong action be taken.”

President Barack Obama, who campaigned energetically for the stimulus, welcomed the agreement in a written statement that said it would “save or create more than 3.5 million jobs and get our economy back on track.”

Obama has been contending daily that the plan is essential to avoid turning what is already the worst economic crisis in a generation into a catastrophe. As if to underscore the urgency, he said a few hours before the agreement was announced that machinery giant Caterpillar Inc. plans to rescind some of the 22,000 layoffs the firm recently announced once the stimulus is signed into law.

The measure preserves Obama’s signature tax cut —- a break for millions of lower- and middle-income taxpayers. But Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) said fellow Democrats had surrendered too much in a bid to appease the Republicans who supported the Senate bill.

“I think our side gave in too much in order to appease a few people,” he said, adding that Democrats should have dared Republicans to filibuster and “see what the public outcry” would have been.

The House could vote on the package as early as today, with the Senate following Friday, although a weekend vote remained a possibility.

Republicans complained that they were shut out of the negotiations, which took slightly more than 24 hours. Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee and a negotiator on the bill, said he was excluded from private meetings to piece together the final measure.

“I have never before in my 30 years in Congress seen such secrecy,” he said.

A spokesman for House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Democrats engaged in the kind of midnight dealmaking for which they criticized Republicans when the GOP was in power.

“After promising the American people transparency and openness, it now seems that the House Democratic leadership has broken their word and cut a backroom deal on a trillion-dollar spending bill in the dark of night,” Boehner spokesman Michael Steel said. “The taxpayers who will pay the bill for this spending spree for generations to come deserve better.”

For some Republicans at the state level, however, the need for immediate aid outweighed reservations.

Georgia state Sen. Don Balfour (R-Snellville), president-elect of the National Conference of State Legislatures, said there are elements of the bill he dislikes. But with Georgia facing a $2 billion and growing budget hole, he co-signed a letter Monday urging Congress to act on the stimulus package.

“I don’t know any states that are going to turn down the money and there are great holes in education, holes in Medicaid,” Balfour said Wednesday.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution staff writer Aaron Gould Sheinin and the Associated Press contributed to this article.

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 McClatchy/Tribune
ECONOMIC STIMULUS BILL 
Highlights of the spending and tax cuts bill agreed upon by Congress: 

Total: $789 billion 
Spending: 65% 
Tax cuts: 35% 
 
Some provisions 
> Expanded unemployment, food stamps, health coverage 
> About $150 billion for transportation, other infrastructure 
> Aid to states to deal with budget problems 
> Funds for programs for health, education, energy 
> Tax credit for 95 percent of workers; one-year fix for the alternative minimum tax (AMT) 
Source: Associated Press