Congress sends economic stimulus plan to Bush

WASHINGTON -- Congress, facing the prospect of an election-year recession, passed an emergency plan Thursday that rushes rebates of $600 to $1,200 to most taxpayers and $300 checks to disabled veterans, the elderly and other low-income people. President Bush indicated he would sign the measure.

House passage by a 380-34 vote came a few hours after Senate leaders ended a drawn-out stalemate over the bill. The plan, which adds $168 billion to the deficit over two years, is intended to provide cash for people to spend and tax relief for businesses to make new investments -- boosts for an economy battered by a housing downturn and credit crunch.

The Senate's 81-16 vote capped more than a week of political maneuvering. The stalemate ended when majority Democrats dropped their demand that the rescue proposal offer jobless benefits, heating aid for the poor and tax breaks for the home building and energy industries.

GOP senators refused to relent in their opposition to those ideas, but did agree to add $300 rebates for older people and disabled veterans to a $161 billion measure the House passed last month.

Although it took a week longer than originally hoped to pass the stimulus bill, Democrats did the right thing by delaying it in an effort to expand it, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said in an interview during the vote. In addition to adding help for senior citizens and disabled veterans, she said, the Senate measure has a provision making sure that illegal immigrants do not receive stimulus checks.

"There will be 250,000 disabled veterans who will get a stimulus check along with the 20 million seniors we have added," McCaskill said. Those provisions, along with the ban on checks for illegal immigrants "are three things the president and the House had not done," she said.

Bush said the final plan was "robust, broad-based, timely, and it will be effective." The compromise, he said in a statement after the Senate acted, was "an example of bipartisan cooperation at a time when the American people most expect it."

Rebate checks could begin arriving in May. The rebates would be based on 2007 tax returns, which are not due until April 15.

The legislation would rush rebates -- $600 for individuals, $1,200 for couples -- to most taxpayers and cut business taxes in hopes of reviving the economy. Individuals making up to $75,000 a year and couples earning up to $150,000 would get the full rebate, with those making more than that getting smaller checks.

People who paid no income taxes but earned at least $3,000 -- including through Social Security or veterans' disability benefits -- would get a $300 rebate.

"We believe the stimulus, the way it is targeted, will put money into the hands of those who will spend it immediately, injecting demand into the economy and therefore creating jobs," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told colleagues.

Staff writer Rudi Keller contributed to this report.