Measures designed to reverse the declining populations of rural Kansas counties hit a roadblock Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, part of an unrelated debate about overtime pay for white-collar workers.

U.S. Sen. Sam Brownback earlier in the day had touted provisions in a tax bill that would create tax credits that states could give to businesses wanting to locate or expand in rural counties with shrinking populations.

“I think clearly, the way we will grow rural areas is to provide economic incentives, the way we did in urban areas when they were failing during the 1970s,” Brownback said during a teleconference with Kansas newspaper reporters before the vote.

After the vote, though, a spokesman called Brownback “disappointed.”

“This bill, if we can pass it, will be good for jobs in Kansas,” Brian Hart said.

The rural development provisions were a smaller part of a tax bill aimed at reducing taxes for American manufacturers and resolving a trade dispute with Europe.

Democrats brought the overtime issue into the debate, saying Republicans refused to address worries of workers destined to lose their extra pay if the Bush administration went through with planned changes to overtime rules.

Republican leaders lost their effort Wednesday to speed the bill’s passage by forbidding debate on unrelated items. The 51-47 vote in favor of that motion fell nine votes short of the 60 votes needed to prevail.

Brownback last year co-sponsored the New Homestead Act, meant to save rural America by offering incentives to businesses and people to locate in counties that had lost more than 10 percent of their population in the last 20 years. Brownback has estimated that half of Kansas’ 105 counties could qualify for the aid.

The tax credit measures in Wednesday’s bill were drawn from the New Homestead Act, and Brownback said he was pleased that Senate leaders were finally starting to move forward on the issue.

“We’re started, and we’re started sooner than I thought we would get there,” he said during the teleconference.

He said he still wanted to see action on proposals to give a $5,000 credit to first-time homebuyers in rural areas, as well as to reduce student loan payments for college graduates who return to such areas.

“I think you’ll see this have impact fairly immediately,” Brownback told reporters about the tax credits. “But it’s not enough of itself.”

There was no word on whether another attempt to pass the bill would be scheduled.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.