The Senate has approved a $31.6 billion fiscal 2002 supplemental appropriation measure that provides billions of dollars in additional aid for homeland security and to rebuild New York City after Sept. 11. The Senate vote, which came early in the morning of June 7, was 71-22.

According to Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), President Bush has said he would veto the Senate version, which is more then $4 billion above the amount he requested.

Besides the 2002 spending, the Senate bill authorizes between $4.4 billion and $5.7 billion more for federal highway funding in 2003 than Bush requested. That would put the total at $27.6 billion to $28.9 billion.

The next step for the legislation is a conference with the House, which on May 24 approved a bill that GOP appropriators value at $28.8 billion. That conference could begin as early as the week of June 10.

The Senate version contains $8.3 billion for homeland security, spread among several agencies, plus $5.5 billion for New York, and $14 billion for the Defense Dept.'s war effort in Afghanistan.

The largest item in the homeland security portion includes $4.7 billion for the Transportation Security Administration.

The New York share includes $2.7 billion in relief aid to be administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, $1.8 billion from the Federal Transit Administration to rebuild or "enhance" Manhattan subway lines, $167 million for roads in lower Manhattan and $750 million in Community Development Block Grants.

The measure also provides $210.5 million for State Dept. embassy construction, with $120.5 million for the embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, and $80 million to acquire a site and to build a new embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.