Senate salvages shipbuilding cash

The Senate yesterday narrowly defeated an effort to strike $500 million in hurricane-recovery funding for defense giant Northrop Grumman from a $106.5 billion emergency supplemental spending bill, voting 47-52 to reject an amendment by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.). The provision promises to be a point of contention in a House-Senate conference because the House-passed version would make $250 million available to Navy shipbuilders on the Gulf Coast, including Northrop Grumman.