By a 48-45 vote, the Senate approved a $3.03 trillion spending blueprint for FY 2009. The resolution's $1.013 trillion domestic spending level tops the president's request by some $24.5 billion.
The conference agreement on the budget blueprint was adopted 48-45 on a largely party-line vote. To accommodate the absences of hospitalized Sens. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., and Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., Republican Sens. John W. Warner of Virginia and Pete V. Domenici withheld their "no" votes, pairing with the ailing Democrats.
Maine Republican Sens. Susan Collins and Olympia J. Snowe voted for the package, while Democrat Evan Bayh of Indiana voted against it. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., his party's presumptive presidential nominee, voted for the package while his Republican counterpart, John McCain of Arizona, missed the vote. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., Obama's vanquished rival, also missed the vote — although she, like Obama, had spoken earlier in the morning to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee just blocks from the Capitol.
The budget blueprint, drafted solely by Democrats, will serve primarily as an election-year policy statement. Most of the hard choices on spending and tax policy will be deferred to the next Congress and the new president.