The U.S. Senate on Tuesday approved a 410-billion-dollar spending bill to keep the government operating until fiscal year 2010 begins on Oct. 1.
Senators passed the measure by voice vote after voting 62-35 to shut down debate. The bill, which was also approved by the House last month, now goes to President Barack Obama for the signature.
"It takes care of these government agencies that have been, over the Bush years, so underfunded," said Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
The massive spending was supposed to have been completed last fall.
However, the Republicans attacked the bill as too costly. "If it had not been for the stimulus and the budget proposal, it might have been ... noncontroversial," said House Republican leader John Boehner, referring to the 787-billion-dollar stimulus package passed last month.
"The stimulus bill riled an awful lot of people up ... And then the budget proposal comes out," he noted.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also called the bill a "missed opportunity."
"In the midst of a serious economic downturn, the Senate had a chance to show it can impose the same kind of restraint on itself that millions of American are being forced to impose on themselves at the moment," he said before the vote.
The massive spending bill, which included an estimated 7.7 billion dollars in earmarks, has also prompted sharp critics to question Obama's pledge to end wasteful spending.
During the presidential campaign, Obama and Republican nominee John McCain both said they oppose earmarks.
The Obama administration said the bill is last year's unfinished business, and in the future, things will be different.
"(Such bills) will not happen when the president has the full legislative and appropriations process in place," said Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget.
"This is like your relief pitcher coming into the ninth inning and wanting to redo the whole game," Orszag told CNN on Tuesday. "Next year we're going to be the starting pitcher, and the game's going to be completely different."
(Xinhua News Agency March 11, 2009)
