WASHINGTON, Dec 8 (AFP) - The House of Representatives approved the final, 820-billion-dollar piece of the 2004 US budget, which includes 2.4 billion dollars to fight AIDS in developing countries.
However, the measure's future in the Senate Tuesday is uncertain, since a vote without debate requires the unanimous approval of senators. At least one, Democrat Robert Byrd of West Virginia, has voiced his opposition.
A Senate vote on the budget will have to wait until January 20, when the upper house reconvenes.
Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist did not like the idea of keeping senators in Washington until Christmas to discuss budget for the fiscal year 2004, which begins October 1.
The White House had hoped the budget would be approved this year.
Besides the 2.4 billion anti-AIDS dollars for Africa and the Caribbean, the first tranche of some 15 billion dollars President George W. Bush has promised to fight the illness, was an increase in benefits for veterans.
Congress ended its 2003 session November 26 and met this week only to discuss the budget, according to the Republican leadership.
Byrd joined a number of Republicans in opposing a vote in their anger over concessions handed to the White House, especially on rules governing media ownership.
Meanwhile, budget hawks criticized the budget's billions of dollars of "pork-barrel" spending for representatives' home districts.
Without a Senate vote, the federal government can pay its bills until January under a budget authorization Congress adopted in November.
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