Senate panel boosts spending on IRS, Pell grants

WASHINGTON - A Senate panel has divided along party lines on legislation funding implementation of President Barack Obama's health care and financial services overhaul laws and boosting spending on the IRS and Pell Grants for low-income college students.

The Appropriations Committee vote came on two spending bills for the budget year beginning Oct. 1, but there's virtually no chance the measures - or any of the 12 annual agency spending bills - become law by then.

Republicans uniformly opposed the measures, chiefly over funding for health care and new Wall Street rules.

A $159 billion measure funding education and health programs would boost the maximum Pell Grant by $85 to $5,635. It also contains modest increases for health research and schools for the disadvantaged.