Dec. 17 (Bloomberg) -- Congressional Democrats, trying to end a yearlong standoff with President George W. Bush, unveiled a catch-all spending measure that boosts funding for veterans' health care and college-tuition aid while still meeting the administration's budget limits.

The House may vote on the $515 billion bill as early as today. The measure would shore up the Democrats' top priorities, provide $31 billion for the conflict in Afghanistan, fund thousands of lawmakers' pet projects and leave much of the government's domestic ``discretionary'' budget at or below last year's levels. It doesn't include money for the Iraq war.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, said the 3,000-page ``omnibus'' bill released late last night was the best Democrats could do while meeting Bush's demand to freeze most domestic spending.

``The omnibus bill is totally inadequate to meet the long- term investment needs of the country, but it is a whole lot better than the country would have had without a Democratic Congress,'' Obey said. ``We have arrived at this point because the White House and their allies in the Senate have refused to respond to the American people's cry for change in the last election.''

White House

Bush would veto the measure because it lacks Iraq funds, according to a White House statement. Senate Republicans plan to add money for the Iraq war when it reaches the chamber.

While the White House statement said the administration is ``concerned'' about other elements of the legislation, it didn't threaten a veto over them and noted ``recent progress on the substance'' of the appropriations legislation.

House Minority Leader John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, called the omnibus measure ``unacceptable'' because it omitted the Iraq war money while including ``billions in worthless pork.''

The bill would end months of uncertainty for agencies waiting to find out how much they have to spend for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. The government is now being funded by a stopgap spending measure that expires Dec. 21.

Democrats said the legislation should end a prolonged dispute with the administration over their plans to spend an additional $22 billion for health care, education and other domestic programs.

Within Limits

Unable to muster the votes needed to overcome Bush's promised vetoes, Democrats first cut their demands to $11 billion before finally agreeing to his spending caps. The party attempted to put its own stamp on the budget within those limits by shifting funding to their favorite programs at the expense of Republican priorities.

The legislation would provide a 4 percent boost, or about $550 million, for Pell Grants, which help low-income families send their children to college. Bush proposed cutting the program by $200 million. The National Institutes of Health would see its budget increase by $329 million or about 1 percent to $29.2 billion. The Social Security Administration would get $450 million more to contend with a backlog of disability claims. The National Endowment for the Arts would get $145 million, a 16 percent boost from last year.

Regulatory Agencies

A number of regulatory agencies would also see increases. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's budget would grow by 27 percent to $80 million. The Federal Trade Commission would get $243 million, about 15 percent more than last year. The Securities and Exchange Commission would get $906 million, about 1.5 percent more than last year.

Democrats funded the increases in part by cutting or freezing some of Republicans' favorite programs. The Millennium Challenge Corporation, an administration foreign-aid initiative, would be cut by 12 percent to about $1.5 billion. The Office of Labor-Management Standards, which audits unions, would be cut by 6 percent to $45 million. Funding for abstinence programs would be frozen at $109 million.

An Appropriations Committee summary of the legislation said it would cut funding for most types of lawmakers' pet projects, called earmarks, by 40 percent from two years ago. It didn't say how much money would be spent on the projects.

Packed With Earmarks

Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican, said Democrats ``have packed it full'' of earmarks -- more than 8,000 by his count. The legislation drops provisions barring lawmakers from spending any money to build a museum commemorating the 1969 Woodstock rock festival, an earmark that had been requested by Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer, both Democrats of New York.

``I'm sure Democrats will try to ram this down our throats before anyone can read it,'' DeMint said. ``But we should do everything we can to stop them. I know many in Congress are anxious to get home for the holidays, but we have a responsibility to stop wasteful Washington spending.''

Democrats added $11.2 billion in so-called emergency spending, which is exempt from the administration's budget caps, for veterans' health-care programs, border security, to rebuild a collapsed bridge in Minneapolis, heating subsidies for the poor, aid to low-income mothers, drought relief and various foreign aid and State Department programs.

Democrats dropped provisions, opposed by Bush, that would have loosened restrictions on federal aid to international groups that perform abortions and tightened rules regarding how much federal contractors must pay their employees under the Davis- Bacon act. Lawmakers also dropped provisions that would have blocked a Jan. 18 executive order issued by Bush designed to make it harder for federal agencies to issue new business regulations.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: December 17, 2007 17:28 EST