Sen Russ Feingold

UNDATED (WSAU) Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold was one of only three Democrats to vote no when the U-S Senate approved a one-point-one trillion dollar federal spending package.

In a rare Sunday meeting, the Senate voted 57-to-35 for massive spending increases on things like health, education, law enforcement, and veterans’ programs. The bill was sent to President Obama, and it combined six of the 12 annual appropriations’ packages for the budget year that began July first. Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl voted yes, and he then announced almost 15-million dollars in projects and new federal aid for the Badger State – plus another 11-million for national autism education projects. Kohl’s Wisconsin earmarks included transit upgrades, new health projects in La Crosse and Eau Claire, and military construction projects at Fort McCoy and Milwaukee’s Mitchell Airport.

Republicans blasted such spending, and cited five-thousand pork projects from lawmakers of both parties as examples of spending run amok.

Feingold has been a critic of such earmarks in the past. Arizona Republican John McCain called them “shameful,” and he condemned his colleagues for approving them behind their constituents’ backs while many were watching football.

But Democratic leaders said the spending was critical to help the battered economy. It also includes a two-percent pay raise for most federal employees. Obama has signed five of the 12 budget measures. A defense package is the only one remaining.