The House voted 263-171 in favor of a $700 billion financial rescue plan. All four Arkansas congressmen voted for the measure.

The package passed the Senate on Wednesday. It now goes to the president, who is expected to sign it.

The Arkansas delegation in the House and Senate supported it even though public feedback that was decidedly against using taxpayer money to prop up imperiled financial institutions. Lawmakers said they backed the bill because it was the best way to stave off an economic crisis.

It was the House’s second attempt to pass the controversial bailout bill, which failed Monday despite the Arkansans’ support for it.

Opponents decried the legislation as improper government intervention in a crisis caused by Wall Street. Other foes demanded more help for homeowners caught up in the subprime mortgage mess.

Arkansas’ delegation is Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln, both Democrats, and Reps. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, John Boozman, R-Rogers, Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock.

The House just rejected a Bush adminstration-backed plan to shore up the nation’s financial institutions by buying up bad debts.

The vote was 228 to 205.

Reps. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, John Boozman, R-Rogers, Mike Ross, D-Prescott, and Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, all voted for the bill.

The stock market fell sharply in response to the House vote.

The White House and congressional leaders pushed the plan as a “necessary evil” to protect the economy from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Opponents said the government shouldn’t be responsible for saving Wall Street firms that caused the crisis in the first place. Other bailout foes demanded more help for American homeowners threatened with foreclosure.

Congress is set to approve a major appropriations package before lawmakers leave Washington for the year, which means press offices are eager to hit the send button on e-mail press releases that herald the dollars obtained for projects back home.

Thanks to the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, here’s a list of the earmarks in the three appropriations bills headed for the president’s desk — a first look at what Arkansas lawmakers will be touting when they return to the Natural State.

Nearly $50 million worth of earmarks for Arkansas projects are contained in the Defense, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs and Homeland Security fiscal 2009 appropriations bills.

Lawmakers are expected to take up the eight other spending bills when a new Congress convenes in January.

Here are the projects for Arkansas, listed by sponsor:

Rep. Marion Berry, D-Gillett, and Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, both D-Ark.:

$1.6 million for biological air filtering system technology;

$800,000 for spectroscopic materials identification center;

$2.8 million for a standoff hazardous agent detection and evaluation system;

$10.9 million for a new National Guard readiness center in Cabot.

Berry:

$50,000 for pre-disaster mitigation for the city of Wynne.

Rep. John Boozman, R-Rogers:

$750,000 for Sebastian County’s emergency operations center.

Boozman, Lincoln and Pryor:

$3.2 million for development of mobile combat support hospitals, which could be manufactured in Russellville;

$204,000 for a infantry platoon battle course at Fort Chaffee;

Boozman and Rep. Mike Ross, D-Prescott:

$800,000 for the center for nanoscale biosciences at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and UA-Pine Bluff.

Ross, Lincoln and Pryor:

$8.8 million for mortar and grenade production at the Pine Bluff Arsenal.

Ross:

$1.6 million for development of a lightweight, unmanned ground robot;

$1.6 million for grenade production.

Rep. Vic Snyder, Lincoln and Pryor:

$2 million for advanced functional nanomaterials for biological processes;

$1.6 million for silicon carbide torso plates;

$1.6 million for information quality tools for persistent surveillance data sets;

$4 million for the engine shop replacement at Little Rock Air Force Base.

Lincoln and Pryor:

$1.6 million for advanced field artillery tactical data systems;

$2.5 million for nanoscale biosensors;

$800,000 for nanotech lubricants designed for durability, energy-saving and sustainability of oceanic vehicles.

Rep. Vic Snyder, D-Little Rock, won’t be at the Democratic convention in Denver this week. He’s staying in Little Rock to be with his wife, the Rev. Betsy Singleton, who is pregnant with triplets.
Snyder said by phone Monday morning that Singleton is not having complications, but he thought it would be best to stay with her. She isn’t supposed to be doing any heavy lifting, Snyder said.
The couple also has a 2-year-old son.
Singleton is more disappointed than Snyder about not making the trip, he said. Four years ago when Barack Obama gave the convention keynote speech, Singleton predicted he would be president. She was eager to see him accept the Democratic nomination, Snyder said.
“It would be better for her and our 2-year-old and both our anxieties if we stayed here,” Snyder said.
The congressman said he’s “pretty sure” the triplets are all boys, based on previous ultrasound pictures. The couple should know with certainity the sexes of the triplets after a Sept. 4 doctor’s appointment.
“We’ll start working on names on Sept. 4,” he said.
Two of the triplets will be identical, he said. The triplets are likely to be born around the first of the year.