The Senate passed its fiscal 2008 Transportation-Housing spending bill by a wide margin Wednesday, after killing an attempt to waive Davis-Bacon wage rules for maintenance and replacement of aging bridges.

By a vote of 88-7, the Senate capped three days of work on the $104.6 billion measure (HR 3074) that funds programs at the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Like the House-passed version, the spending bill would provide about $4 billion more than President Bush requested, and the White House has threatened to veto either version.

The Senate on Sept.10 adopted an amendment by bill manager Patty Murray, D-Wash., to allocate an additional $1 billion in grants to states for bridge repairs in fiscal 2008. It would accomplish this by essentially raising the amount of money states can obligate from the Highway Trust Fund.

The bridge funding was added in response to the Aug. 1 collapse of a heavily traveled Interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis.

The bill will now go to conference with the House, which passed its version July 24. The two measures would provide similar overall spending levels — $104.4 billion in the House bill, compared with the Senate’s $104.6 billion.

It is unclear when conferees may meet. The measure could still be folded into a multi-bill package if Democratic appropriators see that as a useful tactic to circumvent the White House veto threat.