President Obama on Wednesday is expected to sign the $410 billion fiscal year 2009 omnibus spending bill (H.R. 1105) that includes appropriations for most Cabinet-level departments, the New York Times reports. The bill -- which will finance the federal government through September -- passed the Senate by voice vote on Tuesday after a 62-35 vote to end debate on the measure. Eight Republicans joined the Democratic majority in supporting the bill, while three Democrats -- Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.), Russ Feingold (Wisc.) and Claire McCaskill (Mo.) -- voted against it (Hernszenhorn, New York Times, 3/11). According to the AP/Arizona Daily Star, the 1,132-page bill "has extraordinary reach," combining nine spending bills to finance the annual operating budgets for nearly every Cabinet department, including HHS (AP/Arizona Daily Star, 3/11). Many of the agencies will see large increases, in some cases 10% or more above FY 2008 levels.

The bill was supposed to be passed six months ago, but it was a "victim of partisan gridlock" at the end of former President George W. Bush's second term and, more recently, "sticker shock" after the passage of the $700 billion financial bailout and the $787 billion economic stimulus package, the Washington Post reports. Obama has indicated he will sign the bill, "despite having misgivings" about the thousands of earmarks that members of both parties attached to the legislation, according to the Post (Murray, Washington Post, 3/11). According to the AP/Daily Star, bipartisan support for the measure "evaporated after projected deficits quadrupled and Obama's economic recovery bill left many of the same spending accounts swimming in cash" (AP/Arizona Daily Star, 3/11).

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