House sends first batch of spending bills to Senate

WASHINGTON — The House passed its first batch of appropriations bills Friday after a truncated process with big batches of en bloc amendment votes, foreshadowing a similar whirlwind of activity on the floor next week when the chamber takes up a massive seven-bill bundle.

The House voted 224-189 to approve a $259.5 billion four-bill measure consisting of the Agriculture, Interior-Environment, Military Construction-VA and StateForeign Operations bills. The package includes $37.5 billion in emergency spending that Republicans and the White House contend busts the budget caps deal reached last summer and contains numerous policy riders they labeled “poison pills.”

For example, the 13-page White House veto threat delivered Thursday took issue with provisions that would, among others:

• Overturn a Trump administration ban on funds for overseas groups that perform or promote abortions. Prevent the administration from shuttering Peace Corps activities in China.

• Block food stamp restrictions for able-bodied adults without children.

• Require the National Park Service to take down plaques, statues and other items commemorating the Confederacy, and rename military bases named for Confederate soldiers.

• Block the White House from shifting funds from military construction projects to President Donald Trump’s prized border wall project.

“Instead of building consensus with members on our side of the aisle, these bills contain policy and funding proposals that appear to have been dictated from the top down,” House Appropriations ranking member Kay Granger, RTexas, said Thursday during floor debate.

In the last series of votes Friday, the House rejected GOP amendments that would have reduced spending at the Interior Department and EPA. Lawmakers also shot down an attempt from Republicans to put Democrats on record against boosting funds to counter Chinese government influence around the world.

The GOP motion to recommit, a procedural move that would have had the same effect as an amendment, would have shifted $102.5 million from the foreign aid account that funds economic support initiatives to the account that funds antipoverty and democracybuilding activities.