The U.S. Senate approved legislation today that would provide $30-million in federal grants and at least $300-million in government loans to colleges along the Gulf Coast that were damaged by last year’s devastating hurricanes.

The Senate included those provisions in a $109-billion emergency spending bill, which also would allocate funds for the war in Iraq and for other hurricane relief in Gulf Coast states (The Chronicle, April 5). The Senate approved the bill by a vote of 78 to 20, with the opposition coming from Republicans unhappy with the bill’s price tag.

The bill, HR 4939, will now have to be reconciled with a similar measure in the House of Representatives that does not include the additional relief money for the damaged colleges. President Bush has vowed to veto the final version of the bill if it exceeds his emergency request of $92.2-billion.