Talks on $1.3 trillion U.S. spending bill hit critical stage

WASHINGTON — Top-level congressional talks on a $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill are reaching a critical stage as negotiators confront immi- gration, abortion-related issues and a battle over a massive rail project that pits President Donald Trump against his most powerful Democratic adversary.

The bipartisan measure is loaded with political and policy victories for both sides. Republicans and Trump are winning a long-sought bud- get increase for the Pentagon while Democrats obtain funding for infrastructure, the opioid crisis and a wide swath of domestic programs.

The bill would imple- ment last month’s big budget agreement, providing 10 percent increases for both the Pentagon and domestic agencies when compared with current levels. Coupled with last year’s tax cut measure, it heralds the return of trillion-dollar budget deficits as soon as the budget year starting in October.

While most of the fund- ing issues in the enormous measure have been sorted out, fights involving a number of policy “riders” continued into the weekend. Among them are GOP-led efforts to add a plan to revive federal subsidies to help the poor cover out-of-pocket costs under President Barack Obama’s health law and to fix a glitch in the recent tax bill that subsidizes grain sales to cooperatives at the expense of for-profit grain companies.

Trump has privately threatened to veto the whole package if a $900 million payment is made on the Hudson River Gateway Project, a priority of top Senate Demo- crat Chuck Schumer of New York. Trump’s opposition is alarming northeastern Republicans such as Gate- way supporter Peter King, R-N.Y., who lobbied Trump on the project at a St. Patrick’s luncheon in the Capitol on Thursday.

The Gateway Project would add an $11 billion rail tunnel under the Hudson River to complement deteriorating, century-old tunnels that are at risk of clos- ing in a few years. It enjoys bipartisan support among key Appropriations panel negotiators but most House Republicans voted to kill the funding in a tally last year.

“Obviously, if we’re doing a huge earmark ... it’s trou- bling,” said Rep. Mark Mead- ows, R-N.C., a leader of House conservatives. “Why would we do that? Schumer’s pet project and we pass that under a Republican-controlled Senate, House and White House?”

Schumer has kept a low profile, avoiding stoking a battle with the unpredictable Trump.

There’s also a continuing battle over Trump’s long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.

It appears Democrats may be willing to accept wall funding, but they are battling hard against Trump’s demands for big increases for immigration agents and detention beds they fear would enable wide-scale roundups of immigrants illegally living in the U.S.

Republicans are holding firm against a provision by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., designed to make sure that Planned Parenthood, intensely disliked by anti-abortion Republicans, receives a lion’s share of federal family planning grants.

But another abortion-related provision — backed by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — that would strengthen “conscience protection” for health care providers that refuse to provide abortions remained unresolved heading into the final round of talks.

J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE / AP Money’s not really the holdup in talks on a $1.3 trillion catchall spending bill — battles over abortion, President Donald Trump’s border wall, and the president’s threat to veto the bill over a railway project sought by his Democratic rival are.