House OKs $1.3T spending bill
The House passed a $1.3 trillion spending bill on Thursday, sending the legislation to the Senate a day before a possible government shutdown.
By a 256-167 vote, House members approved the plan that increases military spending, allocates $1.6 billion for President Trump’s wall on the Mexico border and funds infrastructure development, including seed money for the Hudson River Gateway Tunnel rail project.
“This bill starts construction on the wall,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said. “It funds our war on opioids. It invests in infrastruc- ture. It funds school safety and mental health. But what this bill is ultimately about, what we’ve fought for so long, is finally giving our military the tools and the resources it needs to do the job.”
While it doesn’t provide the entire $25 billion Trump wanted for the wall, Democratic lawmakers said it is enough to bolster existing structures.
But some Republicans, especially those in the conservative Freedom Caucus, defied Ryan and voted no.
They contend that when combined with the $1.3 trillion in tax cuts, the new spending bill will create huge budget deficits.
“This omnibus doesn’t just forget the promises we made to voters — it flatly rejects them,” said North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows, head of the caucus. “This is wrong. This is not the limitedgovernment conservatism our voters demand.”
Others said it was just too massive to read before a vote.
“There’s no way humanly possible to read 2,232 pages,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said.
The Senate was expected before Friday’s midnight deadline to keep the government operating until September.