House and Senate negotiators have reached agreement on a $94.5-billion supplemental spending measure that includes $19.8 billion to continue rebuilding the Gulf Coast from last year's hurricanes.

The compromise agreement, announced June 8, next must be approved by the full House and Senate.

Of the total, $65.8 billion would go to the Defense Dept., primarily for the war in Iraq.

In the $19.8-billion disaster relief section of the bill, a major construction-related item is $3.7 billion for Corps of Engineers' levee work around New Orleans, including $1.6 billion to strengthen or replace floodwalls, $530 million for levee closures and new pumping stations and $495 million to raise the heights of levees for the Lake Pontchartrain and West Bank projects.

The package also provides $5.2 billion in Community Development Block Grants, much of which is expected to go for Gulf Coast housing, with language stating that no individual state can receive more than $4.2 billion of that amount. In addition, the bill allots $6 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Disaster Relief Fund, which can be used for such things as debris removal, reimbursing states and local governments for costs of repairing infrastructure, and aid to individuals affected by the hurricanes or other disasters.

"Residents will be provided with a maximum of $150,000 to cover the uninsured damages to their homes," said Louisiana Recovery Authority Chairman Norman C. Francis, in a prepared statement. "This funding will allow them to repair, rebuild, take a buyout and relocate, or sell the more than 120,000 homes that were severely damaged or destroyed by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The funding will also encourage reinvestment in affordable rental housing."

In addition, the legislation has $594 million for the Federal Highway Administration to reimburse states around the country, not just along the Gulf, for damage to roads from previous storms and other disaster. This funding is expected to eliminate FHWA's backlog of outstanding claims from states for emergency relief highway work.

The final package is in between the House-approved bill's $91.9-billion total and the Senate's $108.9 billion. Among the Senate items dropped in the final version is $700 million to relocate a rail line in Mississippi.