GOP rolls out stopgap outlay bill
Democrats say it shorts coal miners’ health, NYC policing
WASHINGTON — Re- publicans controlling Congress proposed $10 billion in supplemental war funding and $4 billion more for disaster relief for Louisiana and other states as they unveiled must-pass legislation to keep the government running into next spring.
The bill would also deliver $170 million in long-delayed help for Flint, Mich., to fix its lead-tainted water system.
The temporary budget bill would keep federal agencies functioning into next spring, giving the new Congress and incoming President Donald Trump time to approve more than $1 trillion to fund federal agencies through the current government budget year, which ends Sept. 30, 2017.
Current spending expires at midnight Friday. The measure is the only must-do bill before Congress adjourns.
Democrats complained the measure shortchanged New York by giving it just $7 million to cover police overtime and other security costs for Trump. And they criticized a provision to help about 16,000 retired coal miners facing the loss of health care coverage on Dec. 31, calling it inadequate.
The measure had divided coal-state Republicans. Several supported longer-term legislation tackling the loss of health care, but GOP leaders — including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky — were wary of bailing out unionized workers.
McConnell said Tuesday that the temporary health
care help for miners would be part of the spending bill, though Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., protested that McConnell’s fix would only last for a few months and vowed to push for a permanent solution.
Manchin vowed to block any Senate effort to move quickly on unrelated legislation until the miners’ fight was settled.
“Over two years ago, we promised the retired coal miners of America — we promised them and most of their families — and these are a lot of widows now — and we promise them that they would have their health care benefits, which were guaranteed to them, and their pensions,” Manchin said.
At issue are health benefits for retirees whose companies declared bankruptcy in recent years.
Also the subject of last-minute talks was a request from President Barack Obama for $35 million to reimburse New York City for providing security for President-elect Trump, whose home is in midtown Manhattan.
“Republicans’ failure to fully reimburse NYPD for its efforts to protect President-elect Trump is beyond disappointing,” said Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., who called the $7 million just a “down payment on the way to making New York City whole.”
Democrats such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California swung against a proposal to help speed a congressional waiver required next year to confirm retired Gen. James Mattis as secretary of defense, who would otherwise be ineligible to serve because of a law that requires a seven-year wait for former members of the military to serve as secretary of defense
“Brushing aside the law that enshrines civilian control of the military — without discussion, in a massive mustpass funding bill — would set a terrible precedent,” Pelosi said.
The White House and some Republicans were denied in a bid to revive the Export-Import Bank’s ability to approve export financing deals exceeding $10 million. But the trucking lobby appeared poised to win permanent relief from recent Transportation Department rules mandating longer rest breaks for long-haul carriers.
And lawmakers are again denying themselves a costof-living pay hike that’s fallen out of favor.
The overall measure would keep the government running through April 28, Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday.
IRS IMPEACHMENT
Separately, the House turned aside an eleventh-hour drive Tuesday to impeach the IRS commissioner, with most Republicans concluding the effort could hurt Congress’ hopes of getting a fast start on Trump’s agenda next year.
By 342-72, lawmakers referred the impeachment resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, in effect burying it because Congress plans to adjourn soon for the year. Judiciary panel Chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has declined to endorse the impeachment effort, underscoring a belief by many Republicans that the actions by the IRS chief, John Koskinen, don’t merit removal.
There was almost no debate. But Republicans said in interviews that a House vote to impeach Koskinen — which would prompt a Senate trial that could last weeks — would slow Congress’ 2017 work on taxes and other issues and give Democrats ammunition to argue the GOP was excessively partisan.
“We’ve been given direction by the last election to get working now on a policy agenda,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, R-Fla. He said Repub- licans “need to look into the future.”
Those who have pursued Koskinen’s impeachment since last year include many members of the House Freedom Caucus.
They accuse him of obstructing congressional investigations into IRS mistreatment of tea party groups, charges that Koskinen has denied.
An initial attempt by Pelosi to kill the impeachment effort failed on a near party-line vote. Minutes later, the House voted to send the measure to the Judiciary Committee, with all 72 no votes from Republicans.
Ash Lee Strong, a spokesman for Ryan, said in a written statement that a House vote to impeach Koskinen would have “triggered automatic consideration lasting into next year, filling up weeks of floor time and crippling our ability to hit the ground running on Trump administration confirmations and Obamacare repeal.”
“It’s done now,” Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., who backs the impeachment effort, said after the vote. “And we get a chance to see the benefits of having the White House,” he added. “Maybe the president will just fire him.”
Pelosi spokesman Caroline Behringer said conservatives were trying to do “President-elect Trump’s dirty work for him” by sparing him from removing Koskinen from leading the agency Trump says has been auditing him.
Koskinen’s term expires next November, but he has said he will resign if asked by a president.
MEDICAL MEASURES
The Senate, meanwhile, appeared on track Tuesday to pass a $6.3 billion measure boosting medical research and speeding drug approvals. It also includes a $1.8 billion cancer research “moonshot” strongly supported by Vice President Joe Biden, whose son Beau died of the disease, as well as $1 billion over two years to prevent and treat abuse of opioids and other addictive drugs such as heroin.
The nearly 1,000-page package cleared the House overwhelmingly last week, with strong backing from Obama. It contains an overhaul of federal mental health programs.
Biden presided over the Senate during an 85-13 procedural tally on Monday and a final vote was expected Tuesday despite opposition from liberals such as Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. She complained that the bill would make it easier for politically well-connected pharmaceutical and medical device industries to win federal approval for their products while raising risks to consumers.
Information for this article was contributed by Erica Werner of The Associated Press.