Bundesrat approval was viewed as the final hurdle for Mr Schroeder in pushing through the reforms.
When Mr Schroeder eventually won, Mr Bush pointedly refused to place a congratulatory phone call.
Mr Schroeder has been losing out to the conservative opposition parties in the opinion polls.
Mr Schroeder faces a tough election battle later this year against the conservative candidate Edmund Stoiber.
So while this vote is an important victory for Mr Schroeder, he can keep the champagne on ice.
Mr Schroeder has ignored warnings from US leaders and forged, in effect, a rival axis of power and diplomacy.
Mr Schroeder aims to enlist the backing of the European Union for the German and French challenge to US leadership.
Mr Schroeder urged the Commission to engage member governments in dialogue before taking sensitive decisions that affected people's living standards.
But as the extent of the scandal becomes clear, Mr Schroeder's chances of coming out of the affair untainted seem slim.
But then Mr Schroeder decided to get all familiar again, lunging forward to embrace the president in a mighty, Germanic bear hug.
Mr Schroeder urged European leaders to rally round different - more egalitarian - values, dismissing a "one-size-fits-all" free-market solutions for the European Union.
The overall number of unemployed is four million, despite Mr Schroeder's claim in 1998 that it would fall to 3.5 million by this year.
It's likely the government bills will now be rejected by the Bundesrat, meaning Mr Schroeder would have to reach a compromise with the opposition.
Mr Schroeder's failure to take the rap with good grace has only won him more criticism for quibbling rather than tackling the problem head on.
While Mr Stoiber must relish the campaign gift which the jobless figures present, for Mr Schroeder they are the latest in a series of recent headaches.
"Germany and Italy are interested in binding Turkey closer to the West and Europe, " Mr Schroeder told a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Mr Schroeder's stance was popular at home but Joerg Himmelreich in Berlin says the damage to Germany's relations with its long-time protector, the US, has been lasting.
French President Jacques Chirac and Mr Schroeder have both made clear they expect the UN to play a high-profile, central role, covering humanitarian assistance as well as offering some form of political input.
With analysts predicting there will be little good news on the economic front until the summer, Mr Schroeder will have to run a tighter ship politically if he hopes to swing the vote his way in September.
Moreover they are not new to Mr Schroeder's administration - he has shed seven or his 16 ministers since he came to power - and do little to counter the kind of slick competence Mr Stoiber aims to portray.
Voters punished Mr Schroeder's Social Democrats (SPD) at the polls in the key state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Sunday, amid disillusion with painful economic and welfare reforms that have so far failed to boost growth and curb mass unemployment.
After holding a three-way telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Jacques Chirac to work out a common position on this issue, Mr Schroeder said it was important that "as far as possible" unity in the Security Council should be maintained.
Mr. SCHROEDER: This was kind of one of those accidental discoveries.
Mr. WILL SCHROEDER (Chemical Engineer): Well, liquid nitrogen ice cream actually has been around for quite a while.
Mr. Buffett had conceived the story and was actively involved in the reporting, according to Mr. Buffett's biographer Alice Schroeder.
"It is absolutely essential that no state aid is given before it is authorised - if it is authorised - by the European Commission, " Mr Monti said after meetings with Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Finance Minister Hans Eichel.
Chancellor Schroeder has continued to stand by his minister, but some Social Democrats have blamed Mr Scharping for the SPD's poor showing in local elections in Lower Saxony at the weekend.
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