WASHINGTON — The Senate yesterday passed a $410 billion spending bill that contained hundreds of millions of dollars for projects in Hawai'i, including money to develop commuter rail service and support for Native Hawaiian education and healthcare.

The bill would fund most government programs and services through fiscal 2009, which ends Sept. 30. Funding for defense, homeland security and veterans' benefits was passed separately.

Hawai'i's total take from the bill is estimated at about $372 million, according to an analysis by the state's senators.

The Senate passed the legislation by voice vote, which means there was no recorded tally. The voice vote was taken after the Senate voted 62-35 to end the debate. Sixty votes were required to shut down debate.

Both of Hawai'i's senators were strong supporters of the bill.

The House passed its version of the spending bill Feb. 25 by a vote of 245-178, with both of Hawai'i's representatives voting in favor. President Obama is expected to sign the bill today, the White House said.

The bill is but a chapter in a book of recent federal spending, some of it meant to spur the ailing economy. That includes a recently passed $787 billion economic stimulus package, which contained about $1 billion in direct aid to Hawai'i over the next two years.

"Will the United States be better off in the next year if we enact this bill? The answer is obviously yes," U.S. Sen. Daniel K. Inouye said as the spending bill passed yesterday.

Inouye, chairman of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, was the leading manager of the bill on the Democratic side.

Some of the top items in the bill for Hawai'i include:

• $60 million for the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration Pacific Regional Facility.

• $33 million for Native Hawaiian education.

• $21 million for the East-West Center, a think tank on the University of Hawai'i-Manoa campus.

• $20 million for the Honolulu High-Capacity (rail) Transit Corridor Project.

• $14 million for Native Hawaiian healthcare.

EARMARKS AN ISSUE

In the Senate, the bill drew a stark ideological line between lawmakers eager to bring federal money home, and budget hawks, who decried the measure as laden with lawmakers' pet projects, or earmarks.

Inouye spent much of the past week fighting off a raft of Republican amendments meant to derail the legislation or at least chip away at the earmarks, some bound for Hawai'i.

Any changes in the bill by the Senate would have forced it back to the House for reconciliation, which House leaders declared a nonstarter.

That would have meant continuing government funding at current levels instead of increasing it by roughly 8 percent, as called for in the spending bill.

As Republicans sought to remake the bill, Inouye's strategy was to advocate for indisputably worthy funding, such as money for emergency first-responders, infrastructure projects, healthcare providers and flood control measures.

Referring to the long string of amendments meant to cut the spending, Inouye asked, "How many of these will we accept before we go into law enforcement and healthcare?"

The Senate rejected all the Republican amendments.

The bill contains between 8,000 and 9,000 earmarks — the exact number depends on who's counting — including requests from lawmakers no longer in office.

Inouye was among the top 10 senators in terms of earmark requests. In total, the earmarks make up less than 2 percent of the bill but have sparked a vociferous debate over federal spending.

Inouye had 106 special requests for funding totaling more than $225 million, according to an analysis of all Senate earmarks by the nonpartisan Taxpayers for Common Sense.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka had a hand in about $134 million in earmarks, mostly in conjunction with other lawmakers.

Second-term U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono led the 435-member House of Representatives with $138.6 million in earmarks, in large part because they were co-sponsored with Inouye.

In fourth place in the House was U.S. Rep. Neil Abercrombie, with $111.4 million in earmarks, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense.

HOW HAWAI'I BENEFITS

Other notable provisions for Hawai'i in the spending bill include:

• $9.5 million for the Advanced Technology Solar Telescope.

• $7.8 million for research on preventing the extinction of Hawaiian sea turtles.

• $7 million for expanding the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge.

• $6.7 million for tropical and subtropical agriculture research.

• $5.8 million for Hawai'i's share of a Native Hawaiian and Native Alaskan Higher Education initiative.