G.I Bill Passes Senate

Twenty-five Republican senators broke with President George W. Bush and voted for a major expansion of veterans' benefits as part of a bill to finance another year of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The proposal, adopted by a vote of 75 to 22, also provides money for extended unemployment insurance benefits and other domestic programs to which Bush has objected. The size of the vote surprised Republican leaders, provided fresh evidence of the president's lame-duck status and suggested that election-year politics had fractured Republican unity.