Nov. 3 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Senate approved an $87.5 billion measure that funds operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, sending the largest mid-year spending bill in history to President George W. Bush for his signature.

Final passage of the measure came on a voice vote. It was a victory for the president, who successfully pressured lawmakers to drop a provision requiring Iraq to repay half of the $18.6 billion allocated for reconstruction. The House completed action on the bill Friday.

Republican leaders argued that although polls show the public disapproves of spending the money, the funds are needed to support the military and complete rebuilding in Iraq and Afghanistan.

``We have an obligation to our total force and an obligation to Iraqi and Afghanistan people to finish what we started,'' said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, an Alaska Republican.

The bill includes $64.7 billion for defense, $18.6 billion for Iraq's reconstruction and $1.2 billion for rebuilding Afghanistan's infrastructure. It would slice Bush's initial Iraq reconstruction request by $1.4 billion to remove funds for trash trucks, prisons and a system of postal ZIP codes.

Democrats warned that Congress lost an opportunity to recoup U.S. taxpayer dollars from Iraq when negotiators on the final bill rejected the Senate's plan to make some of the Iraq reconstruction money a loan. The U.S. Congressional Budget Office says the federal budget deficit will reach $480 billion this year, without accounting for the cost of the occupation in Iraq.

Borrowing

``Instead of asking Iraq to borrow against its bountiful oil reserves, we are asking our children and grandchildren to continue to borrow to build Iraq,'' said Senator Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat who has been critical of Bush's Iraq policy.

Bush threatened to veto the bill if it kept the provision, adopted by the Republican-controlled Senate Oct. 16 on a 51-47 vote. Eight Republican senators joined with Democrats to approve the amendment.

Public opinion polls continue to show a drop in public support for the spending. A Washington Post/ABC News Poll found opposition in the spending rose to 64 percent of U.S. adults polled in a survey taken the last week of October, compared with 61 percent when a similar poll was taken in mid-September.

The same poll showed that 51 percent of the public disapproves of the Bush is handling postwar Iraq as attacks by anti-U.S. insurgents continue there. In the latest such assault, 16 U.S. soldiers died Sunday when a missile brought down an Army helicopter southwest of Baghdad. At least 138 U.S. military personnel have been killed by hostile fire in Iraq since Bush declared an end to major combat operations on May 1.

In addition to the military and rebuilding funds, the measure includes $500 million to fight forest fires in California, and $245 million for peacekeeping activities in Liberia.

Lawmakers directed that some of the military funds be used to purchase more protective body armor for troops in the field, to clear unexploded ordnance and to buy electronic jammers that can protect troops from remotely detonated explosives. Lawmakers of both parties who visited Iraq in recent months said they heard from soldiers that there were shortages of these items.

Last Updated: November 3, 2003 17:09 EST