CBO Scores Senate Bill at $838.2B

Amanda Carpenter | February 09, 2009 5:48 PM

The Congressional Budget Office has scored the Collins-Nelson version of the stimulus bill at $838.2 billion.

This is $18.7 billion more than legislation passed by the House Democrats.

Sen. Jim DeMint's office has made the CBO information available HERE. DeMint blogged today that the Senate bill would increase funding for 130 more programs than the House bill did.

Earlier this week Sen. Susan Collins (R.-Maine), who was one of the chief negotiators of the bill, said she would not support legislation that was any bigger than the House bill.

"We don't want a package that is too small because that will end up just wasting money. On the other hand, we're very leery of having an enormous package that would not be necessary and would just boost the federal deficit," Collins told CNN.