Democrats Seek GOP Support For Stimulus Bill

Surveillance Law Also Comes Into Senate Focus

Senate Democrats yesterday scrambled to find Republican votes to support their $157 billion economic stimulus measure and delayed a vote until later this week so that their presidential candidates can return to the chamber and support the measure.

Under a tentative schedule set by Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate is also to take up several Democratic amendments to a White House-backed surveillance bill tomorrow, making it likely that the bill could win final approval by midweek.

The key moment for the Democratic stimulus plan, approved last week by the Senate Finance Committee, should come Thursday.

Reid needs 60 votes to move toward final passage of the measure. Unlike a plan approved last week by the House, the Senate legislation would extend unemployment benefits and provide rebates for more affluent workers, disabled veterans and low-income seniors.

The House package offers $600 rebates to individuals and $1,200 to couples, plus $300 for each child. It begins to phase out eligibility at $75,000 in adjusted gross income for individuals and $150,000 for couples. The Senate version offers $500 to individuals and $1,000 to couples but doubles the eligibility caps.

Senate Democrats said their plan will help more low-income workers while giving a greater boost to the economy. Republicans continued to call the price tag too high. "The only thing standing between $600 checks and most taxpayers' bank accounts is the Senate Democrats," Alex Conant, spokesman of the Republican National Committee, said in a statement.

Only three Republicans supported the Senate plan in the Finance Committee, forcing Democrats to look for at least a half-dozen additional Republican votes to gain its approval under Senate rules. That number will be higher if Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) -- facing elections in Louisiana, Nebraska and Washington state on Saturday -- do not participate.

Reid said yesterday that "Obama and Clinton will not miss this important vote we're going to have on the stimulus package. But I have to give them a day's notice to get here."

Meanwhile, Democrats scheduled votes for today on several amendments to the electronic surveillance bill. However, it put off until tomorrow a vote on an amendment that would deny immunity to telecom companies being sued for invasion of privacy for cooperating with warrantless government wiretaps after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The immunity provision battle has been provoked by dozens of privacy lawsuits and an outcry among liberal activists, but the Senate has already cast one vote showing that Democratic leaders lack the votes to strip legal protections for the telecommunications industry.