McConnell rolls out stopgap spending bill
WASHINGTON — The Senate’s top Republican on Thursday unveiled legislation to prevent a government shutdown nextweekend and provide more than $1 billion to battle the Zika virus. It also would provide $500 million to help Louisiana rebuild from last month’s devastating floods.
Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the stopgap measure was “clean” of controversies and he left out internet-related language demanded by Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz and Republican presidential nominee DonaldTrump.
But Democrats criticized the proposal for failing to fund one of their top priorities: money to help Flint, Mich., repair its leadtaintedwater system.
It’s unclear whether Democrats will filibuster the measure nextweek.
“It’s the result of many, many hours of bipartisan work across the aisle,” McConnell said, noting that it would also allow stepped up spending to combat opioid abuse — a priority of several Senate Republicans who are up for re-election, such asKellyAyotte ofNew Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio.
It also contains the budget for the Department ofVeterans Affairs.
McConnell’s bill is drawn fromweeks of negotiations.
Those talks, however, failed to produce an agreement as the sides wrangled over campaign finance disclosures, Flint, and an administration proposal to allow the Export-Import Bank to finance larger transactions and help overseas customers of companies like Boeing and General Electric purchase U.S. products.
The stopgap spending Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., center, called the measure “clean” of controversies Thursday.
bill needs to pass to prevent the government from shutting down at midnight next Friday. Republicans control Congress and have taken the blame for previous shutdowns, such asonethat shuttered the government for 16 days in 2013.
But McConnell drafted the measure in hopes of making it as difficult as possible for Democrats to filibuster.
The $1.1 billion to battle the Zika virus is long overdueandhas been heldupby a series of battles and setbacks. In the end, however, McConnell dropped controversial provisions that would have blocked PlannedParenthood’s affiliates in Puerto Rico from being eligible for new Zika treatment and prevention funds. He also dropped a House bill to ease Clean WaterAct rulesonpesticide spraying.
Top Democratic negotiator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland urged further talks on the bill, which she said was a “Republicanonly bill.”
“We Democrats cannot vote for that substitute, and urge others to vote against it,” she said on the floor.
Democrats supported flood aid for Louisiana but hoped to pair that money with overdue funding to help Flint cleanupitswater. GOP leaders in both House
and Senate, however, promised that Flint funding would be handled in a separate water projects measure that would be finalized in the lame-duck session.
“This is a very good first step” on Louisiana flood aid,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. “It can be used to help people with housing, help get people back to work, and rebuild communities.”
The administration’s proposal on the ExportImport Bank was dropped. The bank will continue to be hobbled without enough board members to produce a quorum and will continue to be blocked from approving transactions exceeding $10 million.
And McConnell ignored demands by Cruz — sometimes a thorn in McConnell’s side— andTrump to block the government from going ahead with a transition of the U.S. Commerce Department’s role in governing the internet’s domain name addressing systems that would transfer responsibility to a nonprofit consortium known as ICANN.
Cruz said foreign governments such as China would potentially gain influence over content on the internet. Experts in the field, however, said his concerns were mostly groundless.