The House Friday afternoon voted 246-183 to approve a compromise version of the estimated US$787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. All 176 House Republicans present voted against the bill.

Late Friday evening, the Senate voted 60-38 to approve the bill, with three Republicans joining Democrats in supporting it.

U.S. President Barack Obama pushed for the legislation and he is likely to sign the bill in the next couple of days.

The House and Senate both passed versions of the bill within the past three weeks, and negotiators from both chambers agreed on a compromise version of the bill earlier this week.

The bill includes $7.2 billion to help deploy broadband in rural and other unserved areas, $17 billion for incentives for health care providers to adopt electronic health records, and $11 billion to update the nation's electricity grid by hooking it up to the Internet.