Big Water-Project Measure Is Approved by the Senate

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24 — The Senate on Monday overwhelmingly approved a bill authorizing $23 billion in water resource projects, including $3.5 billion in work for hurricane-ravaged Louisiana, despite warnings from some lawmakers and watchdog groups that the bill did not provide crucially needed changes to the Army Corps of Engineers, which would do most of the work.

Supporters of the measure, including Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, the chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, said it included critical projects for flood control and environmental restoration and would create a new national levee safety program with the goal of better preparedness for hurricanes.

“Communities across the country have waited long enough for the vital projects in this bill,” Ms. Boxer said.

But opponents, led by Senator Russ Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, made a forceful, if futile, case that the bill would fail to address the most important needs, even in Louisiana, which is the biggest beneficiary of the measure.