Senate Refuses to Go Over Spending Limit
WASHINGTON — The Senate refused Friday to exceed fiscal 1987 spending limits, stalling action on a proposed $9.4-billion supplemental appropriations bill.
Lawmakers voted 55 to 34 to waive budget laws to allow consideration of the measure, less than the 60 votes, or three-fifths, needed. Several senators who had voted for a similar waiver in May were absent, and the Senate was expected to reconsider the matter next week.
Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) complained that the measure contains a number of non-emergency items, including proposals to build a center for weed science research and to study flour milling.
Most of the money to be appropriated by the bill--$6.7 billion--would go to the Commodity Credit Corp., the government’s “bank” for farm subsidy programs, which ran out of money on May 1.
The bill exceeds fiscal 1987 spending limits by $2.6 billion.
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