The spending bills that travel through Congress every year are broad enough in scope to encourage amendments on a wide range of subjects, and the spending bill to fund the Treasury Department, Postal Service, and White House for 2003 was no exception. Sanders (I-VT) proposed an amendment that would forbid spending money to implement tax breaks for private companies whose pension plans violated federal pension, age discrimination, and other tax laws. Progressives supported this amendment as a roundabout way to force corporate America to obey existing law. Progressives voted "yes," and the amendment was adopted 308-121.