Spending bill heads to Trump
Raises on way for military, but Dreamers ignored
WASHINGTON — A $1.3 trillion spending bill is headed to President Donald Trump after the House and Senate voted overwhelmingly to approve legislation that gives the armed services a pay hike but gives no relief to immigrant Dreamers seeking protection from deportation.
Military personnel at Creech Air Force Base and Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas would see a 2.4 percent increase in pay, while 14,000 undocumented immigrants in Nevada, brought into the country illegally as children, still await action by the Trump administration and Congress on their status.
The negotiated spending bill cut the House appropriation of
$120 million to revive the licensing process on the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository.
But the legislation included a Senate request to provide $16 million to a Justice Department program that would allow Las Vegas law enforcement to receive grant funds to offset overtime costs from the Oct. 1 shooting.
House Democrats joined Republicans in voting 256-167 to pass the bill.
In the Senate, the vote was 65-32 in favor of passage.
The Nevada delegation in the House was split : Reps. Mark Amodei, R-nev., and Jacky Rosen, D-nev., voted for passage, while Dina Titus and Ruben Kihuen, both Las Vegas Democrats, voted against it.
In the Senate, Sens. Dean Heller, R-nev., and Catherine Cortez Masto, D-nev., both voted for the bill.
Despite the overwhelming vote, tempers flared over the process to rush to approve complex legislation that funds every federal department and agency.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-MD., hefted the huge bill onto a desk on the House floor to criticize Republicans for releasing the legislation just hours before the vote, saying no one had time to “read the bill.”
Even Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-texas, a staunch tea party conservative, said the process was similar to one Democrats used when they controlled the chamber. “It’s the same thing we belittled Nancy Pelosi for.”
Titus blamed “inept Republican leadership.”
“That irresponsible path has culminated in a last-minute 2,232-page omnibus bill dropped just 16 hours before the vote,” she said.
But House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-wis., said the process has led to the biggest pay increase for the military in years, addresses safety in schools to prevent shooting attacks and provides money to fight the scourge of opioid addiction.
The White House signaled Thursday that President Donald Trump would sign the bill, which includes $1.6 billion to start construction on a border wall — far less than the
$25 billion the White House sought.
Heller embraced the legislation, which includes measures he helped secure. The legislation also has program spending requested by Cortez Masto.
A budget cut sought by the Trump administration, to take $230 million from the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act, known as SNPLMA, was also left out of the final 2018 spending bill, according to Heller.
SNPLMA allows the Bureau of Land Management to sell land around Las Vegas.
Contact Gary Martin at gmartin@ reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7390. Follow @garymartindc on Twitter.