Washington ? The House on Saturday unanimously approved $14.5 billion for hurricane victims and struggling farmers as Congress moved a step closer to showering money on Florida and other pivotal states in the upcoming elections.

After weeks of delay over everything from budget cuts to milk subsidies, House-Senate bargainers added the natural disaster aid to a $10 billion military construction measure. With both chambers holding rare weekend sessions to clear bills before Election Day Nov. 2, the House passed the measure 374-0 and recessed for the campaign.

“No section of Florida was spared,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said of the four hurricanes that battered his state and the South this summer. “It’s difficult for me to express gratitude as effectively as I should.”

The legislation underscored the heightened political sensitivities of the run-up to next month’s voting.

Both parties were eager to quickly ship aid to vote-rich Florida. And though President Bush never proposed aid for drought, floods and other agriculture emergencies and House Republicans initially fought it, they ultimately supported that money — some of which will go to Midwestern states like Ohio that are election battlegrounds.

The House by 368-0 also passed a bill providing $33 billion for the Homeland Security Department for the new budget year, which began Oct. 1.

Republicans set Senate votes for Monday on ending procedural delays that have prevented the chamber from debating the hurricane and Homeland Security bills. Senators angry over agriculture cuts, a lack of action on tobacco regulation and other issues have slowed the chamber’s work to a crawl.