The Nation - News from June 6, 1986

The Senate voted to allow the nation’s rural electric cooperatives to refinance as much as $9 billion in high-interest government loans. Over the objections of senators who said it would invite presidential veto, the provision was adopted on a 62-36 vote, underscoring the political clout of the rural cooperatives as lawmakers began work on a $3.9-billion “urgent” supplemental spending bill for 1986. The measure included money for purposes as diverse as the space shuttle, the Internal Revenue Service, the Commodity Credit Corp. and aid to the Philippines.