SPENDING MEASURE sent to Trump.
Deadline tonight to avert shutdown of federal government
WASHINGTON — The Senate has delivered to President Donald Trump a bipartisan $ 1.1 trillion spending bill that would keep the government running through September — putting off, for now, battles over Trump’s U. S.- Mexico border wall and his promised military buildup.
The 79- 18 Senate vote sends the bill to the White House in plenty of time to meet a deadline of midnight today and avert a government shutdown.
Negotiators on the bill dropped Trump’s demands for a down payment on his oft- promised wall along the U. S.- Mexico border, but his signature would buy five months of funding stability while lawmakers debate the wall and his demands for a military buildup, all matched by cuts to domestic programs and foreign- aid accounts.
The House passed the measure Wednesday on a bipartisan vote, though 103 of the chamber’s conservative Republicans opposed the bill.
The White House and its GOP allies praised $ 15 billion in additional Pentagon spending obtained by Trump and $ 1.5 billion in emergency border- security funds, though funding to begin construction on the border wall was denied.
“After years of an administration that failed to get serious on border security, this bill provides the largest bordersecurity funding increase in a decade,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R- Ky., a key negotiator.
The Democrats and Republicans who negotiated the bill defended other accounts targeted by Trump such as foreign aid, the Environmental Protection Agency, support for the arts and economic- development grants.
The 1,665- page bill also increases spending for NASA, medical research, the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.
Democrats praised the measure as an example of bipartisan cooperation in the handling of the 12 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government. It reflects bipartisan culture among congressional appropriators, who long ago sorted out many of the spending fights Trump wants to renew this summer — over foreign aid, funding for the arts, Amtrak subsidies, grants to state and local governments, and development agencies such as the Appalachian Regional Commission.
“On a bipartisan basis, we rejected President Trump’s ill- considered proposal to slash domestic programs by $ 15 billion, including deep cuts for NIH and low- income energy assistance. Instead, this bill includes a $ 2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health,” said a top Democratic negotiator, Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont, who called the bill “a good deal for the American people.”
Trump took to Twitter earlier this week to complain about the bipartisan process that produced the measure but changed course to praise additional spending for the military and border security. The White House has said he’ll sign the bill.
One of Trump’s tweets advocated for a “good shutdown” this fall to fix the “mess” that produced the bill, though he declared hours later at the White House that it was a big win for him.
Many rank- and- file Republicans, meanwhile, saw the bill as a lost opportunity to fight for the wall and for punishment against “sanctuary” cities that fail to cooperate with immigration authorities.
“It is a win for Democrats and a loss for conservatives,” said tea party Rep. Dave Brat, R- Va. “We have a Republican in the White House and control of both chambers of Congress, yet this legislation fails to include key conservative reforms Republicans have long advocated.”
Even supporters of the bill said they disliked the secretive negotiations that produced it and delivered it months behind schedule while denying anyone the opportunity to amend it.
“Is there any member of the United States Senate that has read this?” asked Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz. “And many of us are going to be compelled to vote for it because we don’t want to shut the government down.”
Meanwhile, retired union coal miners won a $ 1.3 billion provision to preserve health benefits for more than 22,000 retirees. House Democrats won funding to give the cashstrapped government of Puerto Rico $ 295 million to ease its Medicaid burden.