US spending deal clinched, could avert shutdown
US CONGRESSIONAL budget negotiators said on Wednesday that they had reached a deal on federal spending for the remainder of fiscal 2018, two days before a deadline to fund the government or risk a shutdown.
The $1.3 trillion spending bill was hailed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Congress’s top Republican, as marking “the beginning of a new era for the United States military”, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said it would fulfil Democratic goals.
“This critical funding bill fulfils our pledge to rebuild the nation’s military,” Ryan said. “It also addresses many of our national priorities, such as school safety, infrastructure, and fighting the opioid epidemic.”
US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, lamented having to “waste money” on “Dem giveaways” to secure the military funding. “Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming,” he wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “Most importantly, got $700 Billion to rebuild our Military, $716 Billion next year . . . most ever. Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment.”
The monster measure, backed by Trump thanks in part to a last-minute sales pitch by Ryan at the White House Wednesday, was introduced with precious little time to act.
Government funding expires at midnight on Friday night, and the House of Representatives and Senate will need to scramble if both chambers are to pass the bill and get it signed by Trump by the deadline.
The deal signals an end – or at least a pause – to the deeply partisan feuding over funding that has roiled Congress for months.
Five times since October, lawmakers have had to pass stopgap funding legislation to keep the government’s lights on. Twice this year the government was allowed to slip into shutdown.
The bill sets defence spending levels, including a 2.4 percent raise for troops, at $700 billion for the year – an increase of $61 billion over the 2017 cap.
Nondefence domestic spending will reach $591 billion, an increase of about 10 percent.
Among the sensitive issues addressed in the bill is gun safety, which has been the focus of prominent national attention in the aftermath of deadly school shootings. Lawmakers said it includes a provision to strengthen compliance with background checks for firearm sales, and one that reverses what has essentially served as a ban on federal research on gun violence.
Wall in
Eleventh-hour snags on multiple issues, including immigration enforcement, border security and health care payments nearly caused negotiations to grind to a halt.
The bill includes nearly $1.6 billion for construction of almost 160 kilometres of physical barriers and fencing along the US-Mexico border, part of Trump’s promised wall.
But it fails to address protections against deportation for more than a million immigrants who arrived in the country illegally as children, an outcome likely to cause a clutch of Democrats to oppose passage.
House Democrat Luis Gutierrez said he would “not vote for funding that continues Trump’s war on immigrants”.
“Democrats refused to take care of DACA. Would have been so easy, but they just didn’t care. I had to fight for Military and start of Wall,” Trump wrote later on Twitter.
Another casualty of the last-minute haggling was a bipartisan effort to fund health care subsidies granted to insurance companies serving low-income patients.
That all but ensures that the fiery debate over Obamacare will continue into the November elections.