GovernmentExecutive.com

The House Appropriations Committee Tuesday approved an fiscal 2009 spending bill for the Homeland Security Department, after voting on a handful of Republican amendments.

The bill would provide the department $39.9 billion in discretionary spending, which is about $2.3 billion more than President Bush requested.

Significantly, the bill would boost funding for popular state and local homeland security grant programs by $2 billion more than Bush requested.

Most of the Republican amendments were defeated by roll call votes, although Democrats accepted one from Rep. Tom Latham, R-Iowa, to provide about $94 million in disaster assistance loans to help Midwestern states grappling with recent floods.

House Homeland Security Appropriations ranking member Harold Rogers, R-Ky., decried what he said were too many restrictions in the bill on the department's ability to access border security funds and build fencing along the southwest border. He offered an amendment to repeal the restrictions, but the panel rejected it, 36-27.

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