Congress Passes Stimulus Package

With the final vote coming late in the night, Congress yesterday approved a $787 billion stimulus package that aims to spur millions of jobs through massive new investments in energy, transportation, education and health-care projects, while reviving social safety-net programs that have been shrinking for nearly three decades. The bill passed the House 246 to 183 and, in a vote held open for several hours, the Senate 60 to 38, both largely along party lines. President Obama is expected to sign it into law early next week. The legislation represents the start of a new ideological era that places the federal government at the center of the nation's economic recovery. It also provides a down payment on much of President Obama's domestic agenda, including his pledges to upgrade the nation's aging roads, bridges and electricity grid; overhaul health-care record-keeping and invest billions in alternative energy research to reverse climate change and wean the country from foreign oil.