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CORRECTED - UPDATE 1-US Senate panel approves portion of stimulus bill

Published 01/27/2009, 05:25 PM
Updated 01/27/2009, 05:32 PM

(Corrects Obama's title in first paragraph)

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - An $825 billion economic stimulus bill advanced another step on Tuesday, as the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $365.6 billion portion of it as President Barack Obama met with Republican lawmakers in an attempt to broaden support.

By a vote of 21-9, the committee sent the legislation to the full Senate to consider. A similar measure was approved last week by the House Appropriations Committee.

A tax-cut component of the bill was still being worked on by the Senate Finance Committee.

As the appropriations panel approved the bill, Obama huddled on Capitol Hill with Republicans, who have been pushing for more tax cuts and less spending in the legislation.

The full House could begin debate on its version of the measure as early as Wednesday, while the Senate was mulling a weekend session to do the same.

"Over the past two months more than 1 million jobs have been lost. We can expect similar job losses to continue if we fail to act," said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Daniel Inouye.

Several Republicans on the committee complained that the measure, which aims to jump-start an economy in recession for more than a year, contained spending that would fail to produce jobs and was being rushed through Congress too quickly.

"We are throwing money down the tubes," Sen. Christopher Bond, a Missouri Republican, said, adding that the bill would fail to cure a credit crisis at the heart of the sick economy.

But Republicans withheld offering amendments and instead are expected to do so once the bill is debated by the full Senate.

Besides providing a massive injection of government spending into the ailing economy, the legislation written by Democrats, who control Congress, also would provide about $275 billion in tax cuts. (Reporting by Richard Cowan and Jeremy Pelofsky; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

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