Senate approves spending bill that includes $25B in auto loans

The U.S. Senate on Saturday passed a continuing resolution that keeps funding federal government operations at current levels for several more months and also includes funding for low interest loans for U.S. automakers. The bill is expected to be signed by president Bush by Tuesday when the current fiscal year and budget expires. Since the Congress has failed again to finish all the appropriations bills for the new fiscal year, an interim spending bill was needed to prevent a government shutdown. Supporters of the federal loan program attached the provision to the continuing resolution to ensure that it would not get vetoed by the president. The program will provide low interest rate loans that car makers can use to develop more efficient vehicles and re-tool factories to build them.