61.   Companies are expected to spend billions more to build nationwide networks.

62.   Companies are spending billions of dollars to reprogram computers or replace them.

63.   Congress approved aviation security legislation in November to spend billions of dollars for new passenger and baggage screening procedures that are now being put in place.

64.   Congress has spent billions to prop up a private merchant marine that is overpriced and overrated.

65.   Corporate America is spending billions of dollars on the restless, entrepreneurial endeavor to develop popular new products or to rejigger old ones to boost sales.

66.   Data from Simmons and its principal rival, Mediamark Research Inc., help agencies decide where to spend billions of dollars a year in magazine and newspaper advertisements.

67.   Corporations and governments worldwide are spending billions to find all the obsolete software and fix it.

68.   Dealmakers, including Weill, spent billions of dollars trying to make the vision a reality.

69.   Democrats argue that it needs to be passed this year before a shaky economy overcomes the urge to spend billions on subsidies.

70.   Deficits force taxpayers to spend billions of dollars on interest, money that could be used for other needs.