House passes funding bill with loans for automakers

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday funded a $25 billion loan package for troubled automakers as part of a mammoth spending bill to keep the government running through March 2009, but the legislation did not extend a ban on offshore oil drilling.

The spending bill, which passed by a vote of 370 to 58, is needed to keep the government operating after the fiscal year expires on September 30.

It is expected to pass the Senate.

The bill sets aside $7.5 billion in taxpayer funds needed to guarantee $25 billion in low-interest loans to help struggling General Motors Corp.(GM.N), Ford Motor Co.(F.N) and Chrysler LLC produce more fuel-efficient cars and trucks.

A long-standing ban on oil offshore drilling is now likely to expire next week because it was not included in the bill, which carries a price tag of more than $600 billion.

That will not lead to a rush of new drilling as the politically sensitive topic is likely to be revisited after the November 4 election.

Congress must pass the bill by September 30 because it failed to approve any of the 12 annual spending bills needed to keep the government operating in the fiscal year starting October 1.

The bill includes $23 billion in emergency aid to states hit by hurricanes and other recent natural disasters.

It provides full-year funding through September 30, 2009 for three large, politically sensitive areas: defense, domestic security programs and expanded veterans' benefits.

The $488 billion provided for the Pentagon is less than the $492 billion sought by President George W. Bush. It includes less money for outside contractors and more to supervise them.

However, it does not include new funding for the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Congress would have to confront that issue when existing funds for those wars run out in mid-2009.

Congress also will have to deal with the rest of the government's funding requirements, for programs like health care, law enforcement and foreign aid.

Democrats, who control Congress, have spent the past year battling the Bush administration over about $14 billion in proposed increases for education, science research and other domestic spending.

"I've never had anybody in my life come up to me and say, 'Obey, why don't you guys in Congress get your act together and cut cancer research?'" said House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey in a debate on the House floor.

The amount in dispute has been dwarfed by the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package sought by the Bush administration.