WASHINGTON -- The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives approved a historically huge $819 billion stimulus bill Wednesday night with Colorado's delegation spitting their votes along party lines.

Democratic Reps. John Salazar, Dianna DeGette, Betsy Markey, Ed Perlmutter and Jared Polis all voted in favor of the stimulus plan. Republican lawmakers Doug Lamborn and Mike Coffman voted against.

The vote was 244-188, with Republicans unanimous in opposition despite Obama's pleas for bipartisan support.

"This recovery plan will save or create more than 3 million new jobs over the next few years," the president said in a written statement released moments after the House voted.

Earlier, Obama declared, "We don't have a moment to spare" as congressional allies hastened to do his bidding in the face of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

The vote sent the bill to the Senate, where debate could begin as early as Monday on a companion measure already taking shape. Democratic leaders have pledged to have legislation ready for Obama's signature by mid-February.

Congressman Salazar released a statement Wednesday afternoon saying the stimulus would "not only jumpstart our existing economy, but to grow and invest in the economy of the future."

"This is the right choice for a tough time," he said.

Republicans said the bill was short on tax cuts and contained too much spending, much of it wasteful and unlikely to help laid-off Americans.

Coffman called the package a "pork-laden spending frenzy masquerading as a 'stimulus package.'"

According to an estimate by Republican Whip Eric Cantor’s office, the spending package will cost each person in Colorado’s 6th Congressional District over $2,700.

"The American people are hurting and our economy is in a recession," Coffman said. "We simply can't prop up the economy through wastefully spending money we don't have and can't repay in any reasonable timeframe."

State Could Get $1.3 Billion

If the stimulus package becomes law, Colorado could see nearly $413 million for highways and bridges, almost $95 million for mass transit, $990 million for state budget aid, and nearly $227 million for school modernization.

Here is some of the Colorado spending proposed in an economic stimulus package being considered by the House of Representatives. If the package becomes law, the money would be for the current fiscal year and the following fiscal year.

Highways and bridges: $412.8 million.

Mass transit: $94.9 million.

Other rail: $11.2 million.

Wastewater treatment: $46.4 million.

Low-income energy assistance: $15.6 million.

Head Start: $8.1 million.

School modernization: $226.9 million.

Education technology grants: $10.6 million.

State budget aid: $990 million.

Bill Heads To Senate

On the final vote, the legislation drew the support of all but 11 Democrats while all Republicans opposed it.

The White House-backed legislation includes an estimated $544 billion in federal spending and $275 billion in tax cuts for individuals and businesses.

Included is money for traditional job-creating programs such as highway construction and mass transit projects. But the measure tickets far more for unemployment benefits, health care and food stamp increases designed to aid victims of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Tens of billions of additional dollars would go to the states, which confront the prospect of deep budget cuts of their own. That money marks an attempt to ease the recession's impact on schools and law enforcement. With funding for housing weatherization and other provisions, the bill also makes a down payment on Obama's campaign promise of creating jobs that can reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil.

The centerpiece tax cut calls for a $500 break for single workers and $1,000 for couples, including those who don't earn enough to owe federal income taxes.

The House vote marked merely the first of several major milestones a for the legislation, which Democratic leaders have pledged to deliver to the White House for Obama's signature by mid-February.

Already a more bipartisan -- and costlier -- measure is taking shape in the Senate, and Obama personally pledged to House and Senate Republicans in closed-door meetings on Tuesday that he is ready to accept modifications as the legislation advances.

Rahm Emanuel, a former Illinois congressman who is Obama's chief of staff, invited nearly a dozen House Republicans to the White House late Tuesday for what one participant said was a soft sales job.

This lawmaker quoted Emanuel as telling the group that polling shows roughly 80 percent support for the legislation, and that Republicans oppose it at their political peril. The lawmaker spoke on condition of anonymity, saying there was no agreement to speak publicly about the session.

In fact, though, many Republicans in the House are virtually immune from Democratic challenges because of the makeup of their districts, and have more to fear from GOP primary challenges in 2010. As a result, they have relatively little political incentive to break with conservative orthodoxy and support hundreds of billions in new federal spending.

Also, some Republican lawmakers have said in recent days they know they will have a second chance to support a bill when the final House-Senate compromise emerges in a few weeks.

That gave an air of predictability to the proceedings in the House, as Democrats defended the legislation as an appropriate response to the specter of double-digit unemployment in the near future.

Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, sought to strip out all the spending from the legislation before final passage, arguing that the entire cost of the bill would merely add to soaring federal deficits. "Where are we going to get the money," he asked, but his attempt failed overwhelmingly, 302-134.

Obey had a ready retort. "They don't look like Herbert Hoover, I guess, but there are an awful lot of people in this chamber who think like Herbert Hoover," he said, referring to the president whose term is forever linked in history with the Great Depression.