$1.3 trillion spending bill has big hits, misses
WASHINGTON – Congress may have finally figured out how to fund the government for more than a few weeks at a time: with a massive $1.3 trillion spending bill released this week.
The House passed the bill Thursday. It now moves to the Senate, where lawmakers must act by Friday.
The bill would provide the federal government with funding for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Key items in — and not in:
Gun violence
Negotiators included a proposal to boost compliance with the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).
The measure would penalize federal agencies that fail to report relevant records and provide incentives to states to improve their reporting.
The bill also includes one sentence clarifying that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can conduct research on gun violence. Congress passed a 1996 amendment banning the agency from using federal dollars to “advocate or promote gun control.”
A tax law fix
The tax law passed last year allows some farmers to deduct 20% of their gross sales if they sell their goods to farming cooperatives, but only 20% of net income if they sell to corporations.
For-profit grain companies said that puts them at a disadvantage. Now farmers get the larger break for all sales.
Immigration enforcement
President Trump wanted $25 billion for his long-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. He got $641 million for about 33 miles of new border “fencing” and levees, plus nearly $1.3 billion for border-security technology.
DREAMers, undocumented immigrants who came to the U.S. as children, and wall funding were the subject of intense negotiations over the weekend but nothing came to fruition.
The Gateway project
The spending bill includes millions for a high-profile infrastructure project that Trump opposes — a tunnel between New Jersey and Manhattan.
The Gateway project is a major priority for Senate Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York, as well as Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. More than $500 million in federal funding would be available to go toward constructing the tunnel.
Sex harassment, discrimination
The bill does not include a bipartisan provision that would have overhauled how Congress handles allegations of harassment and discrimination. A similar bill passed the House, but has been held up in the Senate.
Health care subsidies
Also not making it is a GOP plan to stabilize Obamacare insurance markets and help patients with high costs.
Contributing: Michael Collins and Nicole Guadiano.