Meanwhile, Under The Radar: Pentagon budget hits new record in spending bill (AP)

[chill_wind]

By ANDREW TAYLOR, Associated Press Writer 32 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The House Wednesday took up a $630 billion-plus spending bill awarding the Pentagon a record budget while giving generous help to U.S. automakers and victims of hurricanes and floods.


The year-end budget measure also would lift a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and is flying under the political radar compared with a hugely controversial White House plan to bail out Wall Street.

The bill is fueled by a need to keep the government running past the Oct. 1 start of the 2009 budget year. Until now, Democrats had mostly punted on the need to pass the 12 annual spending bills funding agency operating budgets, but the 357-page measure released late Tuesday — along with 752 pages of accompanying explanations and tables of previously secret earmarks by lawmakers — would close out about 60 percent of the budget work Congress must pass each year.

That includes $488 billion for the Pentagon, $40 billion for Homeland Security Department programs and $73 billion for veterans programs and military base construction projects.

more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080924/ap_on_go_co/congress_spending;_ylt=Ahl55xFp8.Ul4dBKzGldTSFg.3QA