House passes stimulus package, Senate awaits vote

An $819 billion stimulus package passed the U.S. House 244-188.

By Andrew Denney

Published Jan. 30, 2009

A stimulus package that would give billions to higher education passed by a considerable margin in the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday and now faces a vote in the Senate.

The House version of the bill passed 244-188, mostly along party lines. No Republicans voted for the bill and 11 Democrats voted against it. The nine-member Missouri delegation to the House split with their respective parties, with the five Republicans voting against the measure and the four Democrats supporting it.

The $819 billion stimulus package would give $18 billion to Pell Grants, increasing individual awards by $500 to $5,350. Next year, the total award will increase to $5,500.

The bill would also increase limits for Stafford loans by $2,000, provide $490 million for work study programs and $6 billion for higher education modernization, which includes capital improvement projects.

In addition, the bill would provide over $300 billion to states to safeguard their coffers from cutbacks.

In a news release, Rich Williams, a higher education associate for U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization, lauded the decision by the House.

"Long term, providing an affordable college education grows the economy," Williams said. "Short term, these provisions help families and students overcome tight budgets to pay for college."

Glenn Campbell, the spokesman for U.S. Rep. Russ Carnahan, D-Mo., said according to approximate numbers provided by the Congressional Budget Office and the Department of Education, more that 100,000 Missouri college students would receive increased Pell Grants, and tax credits from the bill would benefit 74,000 students in the state.

In similar estimates, the office of U.S. Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., estimated that Missouri would receive $1.2 billion to stabilize government programs.

In a release, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., said the package would do little to spur job growth, and would cost his district -- which encompasses Columbia -- more than $1 billion. To spur economic activity, Luetkemeyer said, he supports tax relief for families and businesses.

Luetkemeyer spokesman Paul Sloca said the congressman took phone calls from both Republican and Democratic constituents after the vote that said they supported Luetkemeyer's decision.

"He just felt, and the majority of people he talked to felt, that this is not going to anything to improve the economy," Sloca said.

A matching bill in the Senate, proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., could get a vote early as Monday, however, Maria Speiser, the spokeswoman for U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo. said, because the Senate would resume consideration for a bill that would expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Speiser said the bill would likely look different from the House bill once it has gone thorough the Senate. McCaskill wants the bill to remain earmark free, provide "shovel ready" projects for job creation and take into account considerations for oversight, she said.

"It's impossible to know what the final product will look like," she said.

In a news release issued Tuesday, U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said the plan proposed by Senate Democrats fails to deal with the financial crisis "head on."

"Investing in ready-to-go priority infrastructure projects, providing tax relief for working families and small businesses, and attacking the root of the problem by restoring the credit markets are critical components to any timely, targeted, and temporary economic recovery package," Bond said in the release. "Unfortunately, this Democratic bill falls short of those goals and does much more to grow the debt and grow government, than to grow the economy."

Despite the fact that the bill has not seen President Barack Obama's desk, Gov. Jay Nixon submitted his budget proposal this week with an expected $809 million from the bill figured into the total revenue.