Domestic Spending Intact as House Passes War Bill

The bill was broken into two parts, the first for war funds, which was overwhelmingly supported by Republicans and approved 268 to 155. The second part contained the domestic spending.

House Democrats had been pressuring their Senate counterparts and the White House to include some revenue and tax increases to pay for the veterans benefit, but they met stiff resistance and abandoned that effort.

Senate Democrats, who have not given their final approval to the plan, still could add money for other domestic measures, including home heating assistance for the poor. Any spending added to the bill would send it back to the House and continue what lawmakers have called a game of "legislative Ping-Pong" that has batted the bill back and forth across the Capitol in the hope of finding the right policy mix.

But Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said yesterday that the package is overall a "pretty good bill" and could pass without changes.

Democrats pointed to two key moments that they say led the White House to support the expanded veterans benefits and unemployment insurance. Last month, 75 senators voted in favor of the domestic portion of the supplement, more than enough to override a Bush veto. And last week, two-thirds of House members supported the unemployment insurance provision in a stand-alone vote.

That vote came after the Labor Department reported that the jobless rate had increased to 5.5 percent in May, the single largest one-month increase since the 1980s.

Emanuel said the unemployment report and the earlier House and Senate votes sent a signal that congressional Republicans did not have the political willpower to support Bush.

"I think he said, 'You know, I don't have a card to hold,' " Emanuel said.