The Senate passed the largest domestic spending bill Tuesday, a measure that emphasizes the stark contrast between congressional Democrats’ and President Bush’s priorities.

Democrats are eager to send the bill to Bush, who has promised to veto it — and most of the other fiscal 2008 appropriations measures — because its total funding is more than he requested. It passed by a 75-19 vote, enough to override a veto.

The bill (HR 3043) would provide $606 billion in fiscal 2008 for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education, and for some independent agencies such as the Social Security Administration. Of the total, $149.9 billion is discretionary spending — a $5.4 billion increase over fiscal 2007 and $9.6 billion more than Bush proposed.

The Senate version would provide $1.9 billion less in discretionary spending than the House version, a difference that needs to be resolved in a conference that may come soon. Conferees were named immediately after passage.

“The Senate tonight passed a strong, fiscally responsible bill that will fund important priorities neglected by President Bush and Republican Congresses over the past six years,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. “It will increase by billions of dollars our investments in research for diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes and cancer; job training and technical-education programs to make America more competitive in the global economy; special-education and Head Start programs for low-income students; and aid for poor children and families.”

The bill’s support was bolstered after Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairman of the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, removed language that would have expanded embryonic stem cell research. Under an order Bush signed Aug. 9, 2001, federal funding for the research is restricted to cell lines developed before that date. Developing new lines requires the destruction of human embryos, a process that Bush likens to abortion and opposes on moral grounds.

Harkin and the senior Republican on the subcommittee, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, are both strong supporters of the research. They said they agreed to remove the language as a conciliatory gesture.

“This appropriations bill has no rival for greater importance to America because it deals with our nation’s capital assets: health, education, and labor,” Specter said. “It is my hope the president signs this bill into law in the interest of the nation’s general welfare.”

Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., withdrew a controversial amendment he intended to offer that would prohibit federally funded abstinence courses from using “medically inaccurate” information in their curricula.

Republican leaders offered a motion to recommit the bill to the Appropriations Committee to be revised so that it provided no more than $140.9 billion in discretionary funds. It was rejected, 40-54.

“The fact is, the Labor-HHS bill is simply too expensive,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “It’s $9 billion over the president’s request, and we all know what that means. Next year, Democrats will use that figure as their baseline. And on and on in perpetuity. They expect taxpayers to forget how much they increase spending this year so they can say it isn’t that much when they do it again next year.”

Before passage, the Senate adopted 22 amendments. One, by David Vitter, R-La., would prohibit the government from preventing consumers from importing prescription drugs from Canada. It was adopted by voice vote.

Amendments adopted by roll call votes would:

• Cancel a House plan to redistribute some money for city AIDS and HIV programs, a rare victory in the debate for Republicans. Offered by Michael B. Enzi, R-Wyo., and adopted 65-28, it was aimed at a provision of the House-passed bill that would provide extra money in fiscal 2007 for AIDS programs in 10 areas around the country, but especially in San Francisco. Republicans have depicted the provision as an earmark for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., whose district includes San Francisco. The city took an $8.5 million hit in 2007 funding for its AIDS programs because of a law enacted last December that changed funding formulas for the programs (PL 109-415).

The fiscal 2008 House-passed version of the Labor-HHS-Education bill would provide San Francisco about $6.2 million extra in 2007, partially making up for the cut, and would allot about $3.2 million to the other nine cities combined. It would be paid for by trimming funding for other AIDS programs nationwide in fiscal 2008.

• Support refugees of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars seeking asylum in the United States. Offered by Benjamin L. Cardin, D-Md., and adopted 92-0, it would provide resettlement assistance, welfare and other benefits to the refugees for up to six months if they can establish “special immigrant status.”

• Prohibit the Social Security Administration from implementing what is called a “totalization” agreement with Mexico. The pact would prevent U.S. citizens working in Mexico from paying taxes to both the U.S. and Mexican government pension systems, and vice versa, while allowing people from both nations to count work in either country toward their retirement benefits.

Opposition to the agreement stems from concern that illegal Mexican workers in the United States could qualify for retirement benefits. The amendment was by John Ensign, R-Nev., and was adopted 91-3.

• Bar the Social Security Administration (SSA) from processing claims for retirement benefits that are based on illegal work. It was also offered by Ensign and adopted, 92-2.

• Reduce a fund intended to reward physicians for reporting information about care quality to Medicare by $150 million, in order to increase the SSA’s administrative account by an identical amount. SSA has been struggling to reduce a large backlog of claims for disability benefits, which has led to long delays in payments to disabled people — and many complaints to Congress.

It was offered by Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., and adopted 88-6.

Drew Armstrong contributed to this story.