No House Republicans supported it in earlier votes. And the same was true in the Senate, with the exception of Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, who gave Democrats the 60-vote margin needed earlier this week to end debate and cut off a filibuster.
During debate on the Senate floor, Illinois Sen. Richard J. Durbin sounded the line many Democrats - including Obama - used to answer their critics. "What would they have us do?" he said. "They would have us do nothing."
"This president made direct overtures to bring in Republicans to try and find solutions to these problems - and they refused to do so," Durbin said.
Speaking on the House floor, Wisconsin Democrat Rep. David R. Obey, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the sweep of the policy change represented by the bill harked back to the 1930s. He said the scale of the bill matched the economic dangers confronting the nation.
"I would suggest that this bill is big, all right. But I'll make you a deal," Obey said. "You show me a smaller problem that we have to confront and I will be happy to produce a smaller bill."
Some House Democrats were unhappy that the bill had been significantly chopped in the Senate in a bid to mollify Collins, Snowe and Specter.
So tight was the margin in the Senate, however, that Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, flew back to Washington late last night on a military jet to cast the 60th vote. Brown was attending a memorial service for his mother, and Democratic leaders kept the roll call open until he arrived.
To protest the cuts to the bill for transportation infrastructure repair, Rep. Daniel Lipinski, an Illinois Democrat, voted "present" yesterday, the only House member to do so.
"I did not want to embarrass President Obama, but I don't think Congress did Obama any favors in the way this bill was put together," he said.
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how maryland lawmakers voted
House of Representatives: :
Yes
Frank M. Kratovil Jr., Democrat
C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger, Democrat
John Sarbanes, Democrat
Donna Edwards, Democrat
Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat
Elijah E. Cummings, Democrat
Chris Van Hollen, Democrat
No
Roscoe G. Bartlett, Republican
Senate::
Yes
Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat
Benjamin L. Cardin, Democrat
HOUSE
246-183
SENATE
60-38
