We'll see if Congress can make such progress on the financial bailout.
Pentagon bill poised to clear Senate hurdleWASHINGTON (AP) -- A huge spending bill that combines help for Gulf Coast disaster victims and loans for U.S. automakers with record spending for the Pentagon and veterans is poised to clear a key hurdle in the Senate.
The year-end budget measure also would lift a quarter-century ban on oil drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. That's a key victory for Republicans.
Saturday's vote on a procedural motion would set a final vote for no later than Sunday.
After hard lobbying, automakers won up to $25 billion in low-interest loans to help them develop technologies and retool factories to meet new standards for cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars.
The measure is fueled by a need to pass stopgap funding to keep the government running past the current budget year ending Sept. 30. The stopgap measure is needed because of a breakdown in the budget process this year, and under it, domestic agencies would be funded through March 6 or until their regular budgets pass.
The measure is dominated by $488 billion for the Pentagon, $40 billion for the Homeland Security Department and $73 billion for veterans' programs and military base construction projects -- amounting to about 60 percent of the budget work Congress must pass each year.
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