Senators Push to Expand Stimulus

The only enthusiastic response by the legislators came when Bush promised to push Congress later to make his first-term tax cuts permanent, a goal he has agreed not to link to the stimulus package to win bipartisan agreement on the plan.

The president did not face open revolt over the stimulus, as some officials had expected. During a closed-door question-and-answer session after his speech, no lawmaker asked about the package, according to people in the room.

In Washington, however, senators were busy drawing up lists of potentially costly additions to the package. Collins said a bipartisan coalition of Northeastern and Midwestern senators will push to secure as much as $800 million in heating assistance for the poor, a provision that House Democratic leaders dropped in favor of securing payments for about 35 million families who earn too little to pay income tax.

Collins said she will push to restore about $12.5 billion in unemployment benefits and $5 billion in food-stamp extensions that House negotiators also eliminated, a call echoed by her fellow Maine Republican, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, who vowed to add funds next week in the Finance Committee. Snowe will be joined by another Republican on the committee, Sen. Gordon Smith (Ore.).

"The number of long-term unemployed in this country is dramatically higher than during the last recession, and I hope that Congress will pass a stimulus package that responds to this pressing need for so many Americans," Snowe said.

In a conference call with Finance Committee members yesterday morning, Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said he hopes to provide checks to low-income retirees, who are left out of the House plan because they cannot show $3,000 in earned income.

Democratic Sens. Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Robert P. Casey Jr. (Pa.) called yesterday for hundreds of millions of dollars for mortgage counselors, while Republican Govs. Tim Pawlenty (Minn.), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Calif.) and Charlie Crist (Fla.) pushed for a temporary boost in the share of Medicaid financing assumed by the federal government.

"It was always expected that the tax cut refund would be the centerpiece [of a stimulus plan]. Business tax cuts would be on one side, some stimulus spending would be on the other side, and we hope to round it out," Schumer said. "The good news about this is, no one has thrown down the gauntlet or drawn a line in the sand."

Pelosi, usually a fierce advocate of social welfare programs such as food stamps, pleaded with critics in a speech to the National Press Club to "think anew and in a bigger way."

"If you want to talk about food stamps in this package, what was being bandied about was a 10 percent increase in food stamps," which translates to an increase of 10 cents per meal, she said. "I thought it was far more important to put a check for $1,000 into the hands of the mom of that family."

Some Republicans are clearly worried that constituents could view any concerted push for changes as politicians standing in the way of rebate checks. When Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said on Thursday that his call for the addition of infrastructure funding would have bipartisan support, he cited Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) as an ally.

But Kyle Downey, Thune's spokesman, said yesterday that although the conservative senator believes in principle that the government should be increasing infrastructure spending, "everyone recognizes that unless we get this done quickly, it's a useless exercise. John Thune does not want to be the one who stands in the way."

Other senators insisted that Bush would not veto a stimulus plan with the kinds of changes they are discussing. Ensign, voicing the misgivings of many conservatives, said the deal is now too heavy on politically popular measures and does far too little to address the underlying issues that confront the economy, especially a lack of capital to invest in the private sector.

By granting a one-time "tax holiday" for overseas business revenue, the Nevada Republican said, Congress could produce a surge of investment from U.S. corporations waiting to repatriate offshore profits. He conceded that Treasury officials "are not crazy about" the idea, which was tried in 2004, but he said its addition would not slow the process.

"Things should be in the stimulus package that actually stimulate the economy," Ensign said. "The bottom line is not to do some political exercise here to make us feel good. We need to help the economy."

Baker reported from White Sulphur Springs, W.Va.