The Senate last week approved a $5.1-billion jobs-creation measure that would boost spending for education and summer youth employment by $350 million in the current fiscal year.
A House-Senate conference committee was expected to work out an agreement on the final version of the measure, HR 1718, last week. The House had set spending under the bill, which it approved earlier this month, at $4.1 billion.
Action on the bill had been stymied for more than a week by a controversial amendment, offered by Senator Robert Kasten, Republican of Wisconsin, that would repeal automatic tax withholding from dividend and interest income.
As approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee, the bill would provide an additional $60 million for construction in school districts that receive federal impact aid, $40 million for the removal of architectural barriers to the handicapped in schools, $50 million for public-library construction, $100 million for the College Work Study program, and $100 million for summer youth employment.
The Senate has also approved a nonbinding amendment, sponsored by Senator Bill Bradley, Democrat of New Jersey, to the measure expressing the sense of the chamber that the Administration should not make any further cuts in spending for education programs this year.
