US House passes budget deal backed by Trump

WASHINGTON — The House passed a sweeping two-year budget deal Thursday that would increase spending for military and domestic programs and suspend the debt ceiling through mid-2021, sending the White House-backed legislation to the Senate.

A large majority of Democrats voted for the legislation, while a majority of Republicans opposed it despite appeals from President Donald Trump to support the bill.

The 284-149 vote was one of the last acts by the House before lawmakers leave Washington for a six-week summer recess. The Senate is expected to act on the bill next week and sent it to Trump for his signature before senators, too, leave the Capitol for the summer.

Supporters called the legislation a signal product of divided government, a compromise with something for everyone to love or hate. Democrats touted potential increases in domestic spending; Republicans pointed to possible growth in the Pentagon budget.

And lawmakers in both parties applauded the deal for ratcheting down the budget brinkmanship that characterized the first years of the Trump administration and led to the nation’s longest government shutdown — 35 days — this winter. Facing warnings that the Treasury Department could run out of money to pay its bills as early as September, lawmakers voted to suspend the nation’s borrowing limit until July 31, 2021, probably removing the threat of a catastrophic, first-ever default.

Conservative Republicans expressed opposition to the deal because it would increase spending by $320 billion over existing law and would suspend the debt ceiling without doing anything to rein in the spiraling deficit and debt. Many of these lawmakers were unmoved by Trump’s support for the deal.