Senate panel OKs $49 billion energy 'stimulus' plan

WASHINGTON--A Senate panel approved major portions of the Democrats' "stimulus" bill on Tuesday over objections from Republicans that debate had been squelched and not even one hearing had been held on the topic.

"The goal of this package is to find ways to stimulate the private sector through public-sector spending," said Committee Chair Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). "We have no interest in enlarging the federal bureaucracy."

Yet a failure to act, Inouye said, could result in economic problems for years to come.

The Senate Appropriations Committee voted 21 to 9 to pass the spending package which, among other things, allocates $650 million to the digital-converter box coupon program, which the Senate agreed on Monday night to extend until June.

The committee's spending bill gives $9 billion to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration in order to improve broadband access, stipulating that 50 percent of the funds must go to projects in rural areas--a point of contention in the House of Representatives. It also gives the NTIA authority to impose grant conditions with respect to nondiscrimination requirements.

The appropriations bill also allocates approximately $49 billion in spending on energy provisions, including $40 billion going through the Department of Energy. More than $14.3 billion is allocated to the department for grants and other expenses relating to energy efficiency and renewable energy. An extra $10 billion is allocated to fund the loan guarantees authorized in the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

President Obama met with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill on Tuesday to discuss the legislation. Obama's support for such a large "stimulus" bill appears to be a reversal of his position during the campaign, when he said during a debate with Republican John McCain: "Now, what I've done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut...Every dollar that I've proposed, I've proposed an additional cut so that it matches."

Other measures in the legislation include:

• $5 billion for health information technology.
• $1.5 billion for NASA, including $500 million to acquire data about the Earth's resources and climate.
• $1.4 billion for the National Science Foundation to use for research, infrastructure, and grants.
• $14 million to support cybersecurity efforts within the Department of Homeland Security.
• $575 million for the National Institute of Standards of Technology.
• $200 million to develop a nationwide integrated wireless network for federal law enforcement.

All the amendments to the bill offered in the committee were withdrawn at Inouye's request that they be offered when the bill goes before the full Senate. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is prepared to offer an amendment pertaining to broadband investments, but his office has not released any details about the amendment.

As in the House, Republican senators complained that the legislation was moving too quickly through Congress and that many of the measures were too vague.

"There's a process of ready, aim, fire," said Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). "This looks like fire, ready, aim. We just authorized a whole year's discretionary nondefense spending without a hearing, without a series of amendments, without engaging this side at all."

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Tex.) voted against the bill, saying there should be more specific information about how the money will be appropriated. She recommended appropriations guidelines such as a population standard, a jobless rate standard, or a foreclosure rate standard.

"It just seems to me (that) if you don't have earmarks, someone is going to make these decisions, and it is going to be agencies and bureaucracies," she said. "There should be some standard by which we can judge where this money is going."

Republicans also expressed concern that the spending bill would not stimulate the economy, at least not quickly enough. Democrats countered that the bill provided a good balance of immediate stimulus and long-term investments.

"I don't think there's anything we can do in appropriations to put all these people back to work right now," said Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). "Anyone who thinks we can get out of this recession this year is sadly mistaken--it's going to take a couple years."

What the committee can do, he said, "is lay the groundwork for recovery."

Dorgan and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), praised the bill's $5 billion investment in health care IT as a way to create new jobs and lay the groundwork for more health care reform.

[iptofar]

I use to say we had the best government money can buy now I'm starting to doubt that. When money is wasted like in the housing market, the answer is not to waste more.

[MaggieRed]

The citizens of this country are being railroaded into major debt without as much as one hearing on the spending bills. The Dems in control now are using this "stimulus" as a means to just spend billions and billions of tax payer dollars and we the tax payers have not one word of say so. It's screw the people, steal their money and spend it on our special interest. With that much money they could given everyone enough money to pay their houses and bills off. That would fix the economy as the bank would carry little to no debt from its citizen consumers.

Hope they don't spend this country into bankruptcy. But hey they don't care, they have their millions stashed away.

[Oleg Simkin]

yes, that is much worse then the Reps idea of spending which involves killing people in wars and buying large quantity of weapons. 2 trillion dollars spent on the death by the Reps and you are complaining about 386 billion spent on the people.

Good for you.

[ballmerisanape]

Now is not the time to spend on a "digital converter box coupon program" so more people can rot their brains with TV.. and on "energy" bills so politicians can waste our money on programs that have proved to have no benefit (can you say "corn as fuel").

[Vegaman_Dan]

Now folks, give it some time. This isn't unusual in any presidential regime change. One party spends four years doing their thing, the new party comes in and spends the first six months doing drastic things to change it to their liking, undoing everything the previous party did. They get one year to to get their programs rolling along, another year to defend lawsuits and then the final year is for re-election use only. Then you change presidents/parties and go through the process all over again.

It happened when we went from Bush to Clinton, Clinton to Bush, and now Bush to Obama. This isn't likely to change any time soon.

Now with all that said, I don't like giving out all this money without any sort of monitoring, responsibility to report what you're doing with it, or any accountability either.

[Syaoranli5]

Sorry but when Bush came into office he didn't propose a giant pork barrel spending bill that would not stimulate the economy like it needs to. This is not a "stimulus" package. Look at what is in it. Do you really think the 5000 people laid off from Microsoft are going to go and do construction work? Hardly. That is a complete and utter waste of their skills.

# $5 billion for health information technology.

That right there is just one more step till everyone's medical records are digital. Then guess what? Socialist Health Care. One of the last things we need.

How about instead of wasting 825 billion dollars on things that will barely move the economy, we give all TAXPAYING citizens $6700. That would stimulate the economy far far more. Would democrats ever consider that? Never. They are for big government and spending and always have and will be. I hope the Republicans fillabuster this in the Senate.

Anyone who supports this so-called "stimulus" package has not even remotely looked at what it will do or researched it. They are just listening to the news and going off what Obama and the democrats want them to hear. You cannot spend your way out of this recession.

[renGek]

Syaoranli5, I disagree. One thing that the dot com bust never capitalized on was well trained out of work tech workers. It was one of the few times that local/federal govt had the opportunity to hire talented employees at an affordable price. They too need specialized programmers,architects etc. but can never afford their salaries. But once the skilled workers are out of a job, they'll humble up and take what they can get. So for at least a couple of years you can get good talent to fix infrasturctures and not be stuck with the toons you talk to at the DMV.

And with govt, they'll just talk about it for years and do nothing. Can't afford to do nothing at the moment. Got to at least try. And giving the public $7,000 would not solve your problem because the average american has absolutely no concept of money management. They will run up $10,000 in debt with the $7,000 and then we're back to square one but worse. And those who do have money management skills will be cautious and keep the money tucked away which won't do a thing to stimulate the economy. In this climate, people won't make large purchases or go on vacations. If they buy anything it will be minimal. Btw, you are using an old argument that has been going around for months with the same calculation error. You cannot give every taxpaying citizen $6700. Its more like $670.

[why do i need a name?]

This is idiotic....

If there are thing that we really need to do to "stimulate" the economy they should be limited to those things that can get into the economy THIS YEAR. I can see some need to go through an accelerated process to get things done soon, but....



Piling on family planning, internet enablement for farmers, and lots of other long-term projects is insane. If it'll impact the economy next year or the year after, then let's take our time and debate it, make sure that it has its controls, etc.

But for some reason, the Democrats think that they have to show up with a big number and ramrod it through the congress quickly. I don't get it, and this kind of waste for a country that is broke bothers me to no end.

[Penguinisto]

Wow. Whatever happened to Democrats' claims of being fiscally responsible?

/P

[Kwasiowusu]

Like drunken sailors, corrupt Democrats and Comrade Obama freely handing out our tax payer dollars to Obmbi's cronies who donated hundreds of millions to his campaign as reward for paying to get him elected?
America is being put in hock to the tune of Trillions of dollars by a reckless communist in the White house, backed by sleazy nincompoops like Barney Frank in the Congress. Who is going to pay for all this bondoogle?
The Chicago mobsters in the White House are behaving true to form. Al Capone would be most proud

[renGek]

But yet I don't hear republicans protest passing bills to give themselves a raise at 2 am in the morning with 'special' and very quiet congressional meetings.