Congress had failed to pass in 2002 most of the spending legislation required for 2003. There was simply too much disagreement between the Republican House and the Democratic Senate to resolve on final spending totals. Instead, Congress passed a series of stopgap spending measures to keep the government funded at 2002 levels. However, Republicans were emboldened by their success in the 2002 elections, where they widened their margin in the House and took back control of the Senate. As a result, their first order of business in January 2003 was to propose a final spending bill for the coming year. However, the spending plan originally drafted by the leadership did not satisfy many in the Republican rank-and-file, and so some adjustments were made. This one, in the form of an amendment proposed by Gregg (R-NH), added $4.5 billion in education block grants to the states to help them comply with a variety of federal mandates. However, to add this spending, the amendment also offset it with across-the-board cuts to all other programs. Progressives supported the extra education spending, but they did not believe it needed to come at the expense of funding for other programs, so they opposed the amendment. But with solid Republican support, the amendment passed 52-45.