Fate of budget deal is uncertain

House conservatives balk at Senate compromise

WASHINGTON – The Senate’s Republican and Democratic leaders unveiled a sweeping two-year budget agreement Wednesday that would increase federal spending by more than $200 billion and could end the partisan spending stalemate that has consumed Congress for months.

But the fate of the deal was uncertain Wednesday as House conservatives expressed concerns about the increased deficit spending and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., saying the agreement does nothing to protect undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children

That deal would eliminate strict budget caps, set in 2011 to reduce the federal deficit, and allow Congress to spend about $350 billion more on defense and domestic programs in the current fiscal year and in fiscal year 2019.

The agreement also includes a major disaster relief package to help Florida, Texas, Puerto Rico and other hardhit spots still reeling from last year’s devastating storms. The bill includes cuts to offset about $100 billion of the additional spending. And it would suspend the debt limit — the amount the U.S. Treasury can borrow to pay the nation’s bills — for one year.

The White House offered cautious support for the deal Wednesday. “We applaud the steps forward they have made, but we want to see what’s in the final bill,” said White House press secretary Sarah Sanders.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the agreement was “the product of extensive negotiations among congressional leaders and the White House.”

“No one would suggest it’s perfect,” McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate

floor Wednesday. “But we worked hard to find common ground.”

McConnell and other Republicans touted the huge increases in defense spending. Under the deal McConnell struck with Democratic leader Charles Schumer of New York, defense spending would be set at $700 billion for this fiscal year — $40 billion more than House Republicans were seeking — and $716 billion next year. Under budget caps set in 2011, defense spending would have been capped at $549 billion this year.

“The compromise we have reached will ensure that for the first time in years, our armed forces will have more of the resources they need to keep America safe,” McConnell said.

Schumer hailed the deal as a big win for defense and domestic priorities alike and said it was “the first real sprout of bipartisanship” in this Congress.

The agreement repeals spending cuts — known as the sequester — that were scheduled to hit defense and domestic programs.

Democrats won an additional $57 billion over two years for domestic programs — $26 billion for the remainder of this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, and $31 billion for fiscal year 2019.

Schumer said $20 billion of that new money would go toward infrastructure initiatives, everything from water and sewer improvements to rural broadband expansion and bridge repairs. There also would be new money to fight the opioid epidemic, fund mental health care, repair and rebuild veterans’ health clinics and support new scientific research, he said.

With bipartisan support in the Senate, the plan should pass easily. But the House is another matter. Conservatives blasted the deal as an ill-advised budget-buster, while defense hawks and moderates said it was an imperfect but decent compromise.

“It provides for stability, certainty, predictability, and that’s not a small thing,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa.

But Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said the domestic spending increases were too much for him and other conservatives to stomach.

“I would be very surprised if more than a couple of the Freedom Caucus members would vote yes,” Meadows said. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., called the spending bill “a debt junkie’s dream,” adding, “I’m not only a no. I’m a hell no.”

Democrats also seemed conflicted. Pelosi said Wednesday that she would oppose the deal because it does not include protections for “DREAMers.” Without a commitment to allow a freeflowing debate on protections for DREAMers, she said, “this package does not have my support.”

Lawmakers face an imminent deadline. Federal funding runs out at midnight Thursday, and if Congress does not pass a new budget, it will trigger a partial government shutdown.

On Tuesday, the House passed its fifth stopgap spending bill, a proposal that would fund domestic programs through March 23 and give the Pentagon a full-year budget of $659 billion. Democrats oppose that measure.

The Senate is expected to replace that bill with the McConnell-Schumer deal and send it back to the House. A vote in both chambers is expected Thursday.