U.S. Senate Approves $42.9 Billion Homeland Security Bill

(Reuters – Jeremy Pelofsky)

The Senate on Thursday approved a wide-ranging $42.9 billion measure to pay for improving U.S. border security, clamp down on illegal immigration and beef up cyber security in fiscal 2010.

The Senate voted 84-6 for the annual spending bill funding the Department of Homeland Security for the year starting October 1, and now lawmakers must work out differences with a $42.6 billion version of the bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month. […]

The legislation also includes almost $400 million for cyber security, a 27% increase over fiscal 2009, and comes as several U.S. government websites were attacked in the past few days by hackers. Read more here.