Negotiators resolve federal budget impasse

WASHINGTON — White House and congressional bargainers finished crafting a $328 billion, year-end spending package Tuesday, but the top Senate author warned that late changes demanded by the Bush administration put passage in jeopardy.

Nearly eight weeks after the Oct. 1 start of the government’s budget year, negotiators resolved their last disputes, and Republican leaders in Congress said they were hoping for passage in December.

The sweeping bill finances 11 of the 15 Cabinet departments and scores of other agencies. Its price tag is nearly one-sixth of the overall federal budget.

The Education Department would get $56 billion, which is $2.9 billion — or 5 percent — more than last year’s total. Also included is $2.4 billion as a first step in President Bush’s five-year initiative against AIDS in poor nations; $33.8 billion for highway construction, $4.5 billion over Bush’s request; and $28.6 billion for veterans’ health care, $1.6 billion above Bush’s plan.

Democrats and some Republicans were unhappy with what they viewed as a White House that bullied its way into a series of last-minute victories.

These included fights on overtime pay, television station ownership rules, government records on gun purchases and administration plans to hand some federal work to private business. The White House threatened vetoes if it didn’t prevailed on overtime, television ownership, and another battle it won over creating vouchers poor students could use for private schools in Washington, D.C.

In the last hours before the bill was approved, GOP bargainers accepted language sought by the National Rifle Association to shorten to 24 hours the time the government keeps background check records on gun buyers. The period is now 90 days.