Senate fuses, approves $154 billion spending bill

WASHINGTON — The Senate on Wednesday approved a catch-all spending bill that funds a wide array of government programs, from interior and environment to agriculture, transportation, housing, Treasury and federal courts.

The $154.2 billion measure combines four spending bills into one and brings the Senate more than halfway to completing its 12 mandatory spending bills for the budget year that begins Oct. 1.

The bill was approved, 92-6, and now heads to the House, where a similar but not identical measure was approved last month.

Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate appropriations panel, said he was proud that the Senate was taking another step toward “regular order” in appropriations. He said he was grateful senators were willing to sacrifice partisan policy riders that have blocked spending bills in previous years.

The Senate also gave final congressional approval Wednesday to a $716 billion defense policy bill that would raise military pay by 2.6 percent, the largest pay increase in nine years.

The 87-10 vote sends the bill to the White House for President Donald Trump’s expected signature.

The defense bill weakens a bid to clamp down on the Chinese telecom giant ZTE and allows the president to waive sanctions against countries that have bought Russian weapons but now want to buy U.S. military equipment.

The bill does not fund Trump’s request for a new “Space Force” as an independent service branch but authorizes a military parade he wants in Washington in November. It also addresses sexual assault between the children of service members, including at schools the Pentagon runs on bases worldwide — a problem revealed this spring in an Associated Press investigation.

The seven spending bills approved by early August are the most passed by that date in nearly 20 years, said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Shelby called approval of the combined spending bill “very important to all of us here, very important to our constituents and very important to our country.”

But even as senators congratulated themselves for their progress on spending bills, they remained wary that a government shutdown could occur as soon as Oct. 1 during a dispute with Trump over his push for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

Trump on Wednesday repeated his public threats of a government shutdown, even as he has told aides privately he won’t make any move until after the midterm elections.

“I say, ‘Hey, if you have a shutdown, you have a shutdown,’” Trump told conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh. “I happen to think it’s a great political thing, because people want border security.”

Trump’s comments followed several days of shutdown threats in which he declared he saw “no problem” in shutting down the government to secure backing for the wall, one of his key campaign promises.

But two officials said Trump recognizes the political cost of a shutdown before the November elections and has assured staff members he won’t provoke a fiscal crisis until after Election Day. A congressional aide said the White House sent a similar message to Capitol Hill as anxiety arose about a potential shutdown as Republicans face tough re-election fights with control of Congress at stake.

White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said Tuesday that Trump is focused on fulfilling his border security promise.

“Whether a shutdown happens before or after the elections, his focus is getting the problem fixed,” Gidley said.

The combined spending bill approved Wednesday includes $35.8 billion for the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency; $71.4 billion for Transportation and Housing and Urban Development; $23.2 billion for Agriculture; and $23.7 billion for the Treasury, judiciary and other agencies.