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Senators from both parties worked feverishly Thursday to cut up to $100 billion from President Obama’s economic recovery package, seeking to win over Republican lawmakers and a public increasingly pained by what it sees as a bloated spending bill short on stimulus.
The Senate labored into the night debating and voting on more than a dozen amendments, as it awaited the results of a bipartisan effort to whittle between $50 billion and $100 billion of controversial spending from the plan.
About 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans, led by Sens. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, and Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, were working to eliminate such items as $198 million for payments to Filipino veterans of World War II, $122.5 million for new and renovated Coast Guard polar-class icebreaker vessels, and $61 million for State Department diplomatic and consular programs.
Even without the finished product, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Democrats already have secured just enough votes to pass the more than $900 billion bill.
“I think we have the two [Republican] votes necessary to pass the bill,” the Nevada Democrat said, adding that he still wanted broader bipartisan support.
“But our number one goal is to pass this bill. And so as I’ve explained to people within that group, they cannot hold the president of the United States hostage,” Mr. Reid said.
The Nevadan announced Thursday night that the talks remained shy of agreement and that the senators would return to the task Friday. Democratic leaders want a stimulus bill on the president’s desk by Feb. 13, when Congress takes a weeklong recess.
Mr. Obama traveled to Williamsburg to rally House Democrats, who are on a three-day retreat, to stick with him as the bill gets revised.
Setting aside his prepared remarks and ad-libbing for about 10 minutes, Mr. Obama took turns praising Republicans for scrubbing the bill and bashing them for what he called “false theories of the past.”
“Come on, we are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy in a tailspin,” he told House Democrats.
Although he valued “the constructive criticism and the healthy debate,” he said, it is time for Congress to pass a balanced bill.
However, public distrust has swelled as Republican opposition solidified in recent days over criticism the bill was too expensive and lavished spending on a “Democrat wish list” of projects that would do little to boost the economy.
Mr. Obama personally intervened to wrest support among Republicans, appealing to key centrists such as Mrs. Collins and her counterpart from Maine, Sen. Olympia J. Snowe.
Upon the bill’s passage in the Senate, it still would need to be reconciled with the $819 billion version approved by the House, where there are signs of a brewing insurrection by the chamber’s conservative Democrats over runaway spending.
Leaders of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of 47 conservative House Democrats, put Speaker Nancy Pelosi on notice Thursday that more of the wasteful spending must be cut from the stimulus to win their continued support.
“While a number of Blue Dogs voted against the package considered in the House, many of those who did support it did so with serious reservations and the conviction that the package should and would be improved through Senate consideration,” said the letter to Mrs. Pelosi, California Democrat.
The letter was signed by the seven leaders of the coalition, including Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota, Rep. Baron P. Hill of Indiana and Rep. Charlie Melancon of Louisiana.
Eleven Blue Dogs voted against the bill. If all 47 defected in the final conference report, it would jeopardize its passage. Not one Republican supported the House version.
A Pelosi spokesman said the Blue Dogs would be satisfied with the final bill.
“We want to ensure we have the best recovery package possible that creates and saves jobs, while getting our economy back on track,” spokesman Drew Hammill said in response to the letter. “The best package will also include protections for taxpayers that will prevent fraud, waste and abuse.”
Senate Democrats closed ranks in early voting Thursday, defeating several Republican amendments, to keep the stimulus package intact.
They voted down a measure by Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, that would have replaced most of the spending in the bill with a $500 billion program to refinance mortgages of up to $750,000 at rates of about 4.25 percent.
Democrats were joined by eight Republicans in defeating the amendment in a 57-40 vote.
Sen. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, later in the day proposed a $440 billion stimulus consisting of tax cuts and unemployment benefits for laid-off workers, but the bill failed 60-37 on another near-party-line vote.
The Senate approved on a voice vote an amendment by Sen. Claire McCaskill, Missouri Democrat, that would cap executive compensation at companies receiving emergency economic aid from the government. The compensation would be limited to $400,000 a year, the same as the salary of the president.
Mr. Reid’s confidence heading toward a final Senate vote belied earlier admissions by top Democrats that they didn’t have enough votes to pass the stimulus.
The stimulus’ price tag ballooned to more than $900 billion as the Senate added $11 billion in tax incentives for new car purchases and $6.5 billion more for the National Institutes of Health. Other spending items that have attracted criticism and could be targeted by Mr. Nelson and Mrs. Collins include $25 million to fix up trails for all-terrain vehicles and $524 million for a State Department program that critics say would create just 388 jobs - that’s $1.35 million per job.
The chamber also added a measure by Sen. Johnny Isakson, Georgia Republican, that would give up to a $15,000 tax credit to homebuyers in hopes of spurring the housing industry.
But minor tweaks to the bill have not satisfied Senate Republicans, who are expected to mount a filibuster if major cuts are not made.
“The addition of the homebuyer tax credit does not mean Senator Isakson is a ’yes’ vote on final passage by any stretch,” said his chief of staff, Joan Kirchner. “There are many more amendments to be voted on and he will wait to see the final bill before deciding how he will vote on cloture or final passage.”
• Sean Lengell contributed to this report.
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