The Senate Appropriations Committee voted yesterday to block the Bush administration's controversial new overtime pay rules, but only after the Senate's most senior Republican warned that a slew of such legislative riders could complicate final deals on bills needed to fund the federal government in fiscal 2005.

The provision, approved 16 to 13, was attached to a $142 billion bill funding the Labor, Education, and Health and Human Services departments next year. The House attached a similar provision to its version of the bill last week, defying a threat by the White House to veto the entire bill unless Congress gives way on the issue.
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