House and Senate negotiators agreed today on the first spending bill for the Department of Homeland Security, approving $29.4 billion but stripping out a plan to require screening of air cargo carried aboard passenger jets. House Appropriations Committee officials said negotiators rejected a House provision that would have forced the agency to develop a strategy for subjecting cargo to the same scrutiny as passengers and their baggage by Oct. 1 or risk losing $50 million. A committee spokesman, John Scofield, said the requirement was unworkable because the capability for doing the screening did not exist. Instead, he said, the bill includes $55 million for the study of technologies and $30 million to strengthen a program to encourage that cargo be handled by “known shippers.” Full Story