WASHINGTON (AP) - Pro-gun forces have won their latest congressional skirmish as the Senate endorsed President Bush's plan to eliminate a 2-year-old program that has helped local police buy firearms from the public.

By a 65-33 vote, the Senate rejected on Thursday a proposal by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to provide $15 million for Buyback America. The program was created by President Clinton, but the Bush administration pledged last month to eliminate it because of a lack of evidence that it was effective.

"Crime goes up," Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said Thursday. "We spend money. Great photo opportunity. But it doesn't work."

Schumer said that many public housing authorities, which administer the program, have had great success with it.

"No, it's not feel-good," Schumer said, mocking opponents' characterizations of the initiative. "It's life and death."

Schumer tried adding the provision to a $113.4 billion measure to finance housing, environment, veterans and science programs for next year, which the Senate approved, 94-5. The House version of the bill, passed last week, contained no money for the firearms purchasing program.

The vote on Schumer's plan was not a clear referendum on the Senate's sentiment on gun issues. To pay for his amendment, Schumer would have taken money from funds provided to public housing authorities for anti-drug efforts, a program some lawmakers were reluctant to raid.

Nonetheless, the buyback initiative has been opposed by the National Rifle Association and supported by gun-control advocates. In an alert e-mailed and faxed to Senate offices before the vote, the NRA called it a "gun surrender" program and said it was a waste of money.

The vote was the second victory for Bush and pro-gun forces in less than a month. In July, the House voted to back Attorney General John Ashcroft's plan to shorten to one day the period the government keeps background-check records of firearms purchasers.

Under the gun buyback program, local police departments have received up to $500,000 to buy guns in and around public housing projects for about $50 each. The weapons were destroyed.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which administered the program, credited it with removing 20,000 guns from the streets of 80 cities in its first year. The agency also said the buybacks were removing just 1 percent to 2 percent of guns from those communities.

On another issue Thursday, the Senate voted 69-30 to reject an effort by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., to cut $5 million from some of the hundreds of home-state projects the bill contains and increase spending for the adjudication of veterans' claims.

McCain, a longtime campaigner against such earmarks, had proposed halving the money for 18 projects in the bill, including $100,000 to develop the Alabama quail; $1 million to improve a rodeo and fair facility in Dona Ana County, N.M.; and $1 million to help Louisiana celebrate the upcoming bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase.

The overall bill would boost veterans spending by 9 percent to $51 billion; restore a $300 million drug-elimination program for low-income housing that Bush proposed killing; and provide $416 million for the Americorps national service program, $4 million more than Bush wants.

The Environmental Protection Agency would get $7.8 billion, $435 million over Bush's request, while ignoring Bush proposals to cut 270 enforcement officials. While NASA and the National Science Foundation would get more than last year, the space station would get $2 billion - about $100 million less than Bush sought, reflecting congressional impatience with cost overruns.