Senate's Stimulus Measure Blocked

The Senate version would also extend jobless benefits at a cost of $14.5 billion over two years. It would provide $1 billion in heating assistance for the poor, allow states to issue federally backed housing construction bonds, and take steps to ensure that illegal immigrants do not receive payments.

"Are you going to throw Grandpa and Grandma off the train, and the disabled veteran who put his life on the line for this country?" Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) asked opponents of the package.

But the Senate Finance Committee also added billions of dollars in energy tax credit extensions, including an incentive for marginal oil and gas wells, as well as a measure that would reimburse coal companies for interest on wrongfully levied export taxes. Those measures, although adopted with bipartisan support, opened the package to criticism from administration and Republican leaders, who accused Democrats of slowing down the promised payments by loading the bill with sweetheart projects.

Over two years, the Senate package would cost about $204 billion, about $40 billion more than the House bill's two-year cost.

"Where's that money coming from?" asked Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). "Nobody can deny that we're going to go to the markets, we're going to borrow the money and there's going to be very little payback. . . . Is there another way we can stimulate our economy without stealing from our kids?"

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) called the package "a Christmas tree of legislative goodies that might not even get signed" by the president.

In the face of rising pressure, Republican leaders made a significant concession. Whereas they once demanded that the Senate pass the House bill and immediately send it to the president, they now favor the extension of benefits to seniors and veterans and the controls on claims by illegal immigrants. Such changes would force the stimulus package into House-Senate negotiations, which Bush and House leaders had wanted to avoid.

Reid must now decide whether to make good on his threat to immediately move to the House package or allow the Senate to make piecemeal changes through amendment votes. Republicans who voted for and against the Senate Finance Committee measure were betting yesterday that Reid's threat is meaningless.

"Can you imagine AARP, can you imagine our veterans letting the Democrats get away [with that], when we're willing to help them and let them be part of the package?" scoffed Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah). "I can't imagine."

"This is the Senate, not the House. It's not an all-or-nothing place," said Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.), a top target of Democrats in the November elections.

John Rother, AARP policy director, confirmed that the group will push for a separate vote on adding payments for seniors to the House plan.

Democratic Senate aides said that they expect Reid to relent today, but only after the GOP absorbs the morning's news headlines on the filibuster.

Staff writers Paul Kane and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.