Senate Democratic leaders struck a deal Friday evening to slash about $145 billion from President Obama’s economic stimulus plan, picking up support from two Republicans needed to pass the package.
The deal was brokered in a marathon of backroom negotiations by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel and Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.
“Our country faces a grave economic crisis, and the American people want us to work together,” Miss Collins said, noting the announcement Friday of another 600,000 American jobs lost last month. “They don’t want to see us dividing along partisan lines on the most serious crisis facing our country.”
The other senators leading the negotiations were Sen. Ben Nelson, Nebraska Democrat, and Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats.
Lawmakers awaited a copy of the rewritten bill, resulting in disputes over its final size. Republican leaders estimated the proposal would cost about $827 billion, more expensive than Mr. Obama’s original proposal. But Mr. Specter and Senate Democrats were citing figures ranging from $780 billion to $800 billion, and Mr. Specter said on the Senate floor that the new bill was $145 billion smaller than the bill’s previous $937 billion price tag.
Mr. Reid said a vote could come as early as Monday.
Democratic leaders want a stimulus bill on the president’s desk by Feb. 13, when Congress takes a weeklong recess.
Upon the bill’s passage in the Senate, it still would need to be reconciled with the $819 billion version approved by the House. No Republicans voted for the House bill.
A Democratic official said the reductions would come by eliminating some tax cuts and trimming the state stabilization funds, which help state and local governments fund education and other key services.
The stabilization funds accounted for about 20 percent, or about $180 billion, of the bill’s size.
The new package would increase the share of tax cuts from 30 percent to 40 percent of the bill’s price tag and reduces the share of spending increases from 70 percent to 60 percent.
It includes funding to stem home foreclosures and give tax credits for new-car purchases, said Sen. Thomas R. Carper, Delaware Democrat.
Several Republicans remained dissatisfied with the size of the bill, grumbling in the Senate cloakroom that it didn’t make sense to back a bill that was as expensive as the House-passed version, a senior Republican aide said.
“It seems to me it falls far short of the type of measure we should be passing,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican.
Polls show the public has grown increasingly skeptical of the stimulus plan as most Republicans on Capitol Hill hardened in their opposition to what they say is a bloated spending bill that will do little to boost the economy.
Mr. Nelson, who dubbed the negotiating team “the jobs squad,” said, “We recognize that our plan isn’t perfect, but I believe it’s both responsible and realistic.”
Two Republicans plus the entire 58-member Democratic caucus would give the bill 60 votes, the number needed to pass any controversial proposal.
To get that entire caucus, the Democratic leadership would need the vote of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, who is battling a brain tumor and has not been in Washington since he collapsed at the Capitol on Inauguration Day.
Mr. Kennedy, who has been staying at a vacation home in Florida, flew to Washington for the vote and arrived Friday evening.
The changes won over some Democrats skeptical of the original proposal, which grew from about $850 billion to $937 billion in recent days as the Senate added programs and tax cuts.
“I think this is a substantial improvement,” said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, North Dakota Democrat, who voiced doubts about the effectiveness of earlier versions.
Other Democrats may bristle at the spending cuts. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, said earlier in the day she was concerned the bill already had too many tax cuts and spread too little cash around to boost the economy.
“I don’t know how many jobs are going to come out of this,” she said.
The agreement was hammered out by a small group of senators bartering behind closed doors throughout the day. The negotiations involved a “gang of 18” - 15 Democrats and three Republicans.
Besides Miss Collins and Mr. Specter, the only Republican in the room was Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, whose stance on the new bill remained unclear Friday night.
The new “gang” replaced a more evenly bipartisan group that broke up late Thursday night over spending cuts too small to satisfy Republican members, including Sens. Mel Martinez of Florida, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and George V. Voinovich of Ohio.
Sen. John McCain, Arizona Republican, said the new negotiations lack the bipartisan component to make it credible.
“Now it’s 15 Democrats, three Republicans. That’s not bipartisan,” Mr. McCain said on the Senate floor. “If they come up with an agreement, then it will mean that three Republicans out of 535 members of Congress have supported this unnecessary, wasteful bill that could have been so much better.”
As senators hammered out the details of the stimulus, Mr. Obama named an Economic Recovery Advisory Board to be led by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker to guide the recovery effort.
The president said Congress must act immediately to pass the stimulus because more job losses are coming as the economy gets worse, not better.
“Although we had a terrible year with respect to jobs last year, the problem is accelerating, not decelerating. It’s getting worse, not getting better,” Mr. Obama said.
The nearly 600,000 jobs lost in January are the most in decades. Mr. Obama sought to use the increasingly bleak numbers as a reason for Congress to end its debate and pass an economic stimulus bill.
He defended the bills Democrats passed in the House and are moving to pass in the Senate, saying that while they need improvement, they are “broadly speaking … the right size, the right scope and it has the right balance.”
The stimulus’ price tag ballooned as the Senate added such items as $11 billion in tax incentives for new-car purchases, $6.5 billion more for the National Institutes of Health and about $18 billion for a $15,000 tax credit to homebuyers in hopes of spurring the housing industry.
• Stephen Dinan and Sean Lengell contributed to this article.
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