A number of other significant measures passed on Tuesday.
Key ballot measures passed on Election Day beefed up gun control in Washington, California, and even libertarian-leaning Nevada; provisions loosening marijuana laws passed in eight of the nine states where they were on the ballot; and voters in Colorado, Maine, and Arizona approved increases to the minimum wage.
The measure, passed on an overwhelming vote of 556 to 42, is intended to close, at least legally, the most brutal chapter in German history.
The measure passed on Wednesday in Strasbourg, France, by a vote of 344 to 311 after intense lobbying by the European Commission and some national governments, including those of France, Denmark and Finland.
The measure passed on Monday would stock government health centers, including those in remote areas, with free or subsidized birth control options for the poor.
Under the measure passed on Thursday, the deadline to reauthorize the Patriot Act moved, from Dec. 31 to Feb. 3, timing that could prove a problem for the White House.
Though the cost for the omnibus measure passed on Thursday was put at $820 billion, much of that was automatic Medicare and Medicaid spending, with Congress controlling about $328 billion of the total.
However, Mr. Durbin's support, along with the fact that his measure passed on a lopsided 64-33 vote last May, means that the nine senators could face an uphill battle to win enough votes to pass.
Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, extolled the measure, passed on a bipartisan vote of 74 to 22, as "a jobs bill in the true sense of the word".
The measure passed on December 23rd without so much as a roll-call vote.The deal lifts, if only for a couple of months, one shadow over the economy and thus Mr Obama's re-election prospects.
Even though there was a massive campaign against this measure – orchestrated by the porn industry and supported by business organizations such as the San Gabriel Valley Legislative Coalition of Chambers of Commerce and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association (Vica), which proudly boasts that it "promotes a pro-business agenda" – the measure passed on 6 November, with 55.9% of the vote.
