House OKs compromise $1.3 trillion budget bill, Senate next
WASHINGTON — The House easily approved a bipartisan $1.3 trillion spending bill Thursday that pours huge sums into Pentagon programs and domestic initiatives ranging from building roads to combating the nation’s opioid abuse crisis, but left Congress in stalemate over shielding young Dreamer immigrants from deportation and curbing surging health insurance premiums.
The vote was 256-167, a one-sided tally that underscored the popularity of a budget deal among party leaders that provided enough money to address many of both sides’ priorities. Further highlighting how eager lawmakers were to claim victories, the House approved the 2,232-page package — which stood around a foot tall on some legislators’ desks — less than 17 hours after negotiators released it publicly.
The next step was Senate passage, which was assured.
But it was possible some Republican senators critical of the bill’s spending could delay its approval until after midnight Friday night. If that occurred, that would prompt the year’s third federal shutdown, an event that was sure to be brief but would still embarrass a GOP that controls the White House and Congress.
The White House said President
Donald Trump supported the legislation, even though he tweeted Wednesday that he “had to waste money on Dem giveaways” on domestic programs to win increases for the military.
Congressional Republir cans focused on the bill’s defense increases.
“Vote yes for our military. Vote yes for the safety and the security of this country,” said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Some Republicans were opposing the measure ber cause of what they considered excessive spending. Some Democrats were
opposed because it lacked language renewing the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA. Trump has ended DACA, which temporarily lets some illegal immigrants stay in the U.S.
The bill would deprive Trump of some of his border wall money and take only incremental steps to address gun violence. It also would substantially increase the federal deficit.
Also missing was a renewal of federal subsidies to insurers aimed at curbing the relentless growth of premiums. Trump ended some of those payments as part of his effort to scuttle President Barack Obama’s health care law. A bipartisan effort
to restore them and add additional help for carriers foundered over several disagreements including how tight abortion restrictions on using the money should be.
On guns, leaders agreed to tuck in bipartisan provisions to bolster school safety funds and improve compliance with the criminal background check system for firearm purchases. The bill states that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can do research on gun violence, though not advocacy, an idea Democrats pushed.
Trump is poised to win $1.6 billion for barriers along the border. The White House said it plans to use
one of the prototypes the president recently visited in California for a 14-mile segment in San Diego. But it is not clear they can be used elsewhere, because of restrictions in the bill. Less than half the nearly 95 miles of border construction, including levees along the Rio Grande in Texas, would be for new barriers, with the rest for repair of existing segments.