Lawmakers
push for
budget
vote to
avert
government
shutdown
By
ANDREW
TAYLOR
APNews.com
WASHINGTON
-
Lawmakers
pushed
to enact
a
massive
budget
deal
Thursday
along
with a
stopgap
temporary
measure
to
prevent
a
government
shutdown
at
midnight.
The
measure
appeared
set to
sail
through
the
Senate
in
anticipation
of the
House
sending
it to
President
Donald
Trump by
day’s
end.
House
GOP
leaders
were
working
to shore
up
support
among
conservatives
for the
measure,
which
would
shower
the
Pentagon
with
money
but add
hundreds
of
billions
of
dollars
to the
nation’s
$20
trillion-plus
debt.
Hopes
for a
midafternoon
Senate
vote
were
dashed
by Rand
Paul,
R-Ky.,
who was
holding
the
measure
up — for
now — in
hopes of
winning
a vote
to
reverse
its
spending
increases.
House
Democratic
leaders
opposed
the
measure
—
demanding
a vote
to
resolve
the
plight
of
immigrant
“Dreamers”
who face
deportation
after
being
brought
to the
U.S.
illegally
as
children
— but
not with
all
their
might.
Other
rank-and-file
Democrats
said
they
would
support
the
bill,
which is
larded
with
money
for
party
priorities
like
infrastructure
and
combating
opioid
abuse.
Republicans
pointed
to money
they
have
long
sought
for the
Pentagon.
“It
provides
what the
Pentagon
needs to
restore
our
military’s
edge for
years to
come,”
said
House
Speaker
Paul
Ryan,
R-Wis.
But
it
represented
a bitter
defeat
for many
liberal
Democrats
who
sought
to use
the
party’s
leverage
on the
budget
to
address
immigration.
And some
tea
party
Republicans
shredded
the
measure
as a
budget-buster.
Beyond
the $300
billion
figure
for the
military
and
domestic
programs,
the
agreement
adds $89
billion
in
overdue
disaster
aid for
hurricane-slammed
Texas,
Florida
and
Puerto
Rico, a
politically
charged
increase
in the
government’s
borrowing
cap and
a grab
bag of
health
and tax
provisions.
Cotton
growers
and
dairy
farmers
would
get
relief
courtesy
of the
bipartisan
leadership
of the
Senate
Appropriations
Committee,
while
popular
funding
for
community
health
centers
would be
extended
for two
years,
among
myriad
health
provisions.
“I
love
bipartisanship,
as you
know,”
said
Sen.
Jeff
Flake,
R-Ariz.
“But the
problem
is the
only
time we
discover
bipartisanship
is when
we spend
more
money.”
Senate
leaders
pressed
to
approve
the
measure
Thursday
and send
it to
the
House
for a
confirming
vote
before
the
government
begins
to shut
down at
midnight.
While
Senate
Democrats
celebrated
the rare
moment
of
bipartisanship
—
Minority
Leader
Chuck
Schumer
called
it a
“genuine
breakthrough”
—
progressives
and
activists
blasted
them for
leaving
immigrants
in
limbo.
Top
House
Democrat
Nancy
Pelosi
of
California,
herself
a key
architect
of the
budget
plan,
announced
her
opposition
Wednesday
morning
and
mounted
a
remarkable
daylong
speech
on the
House
floor,
trying
to force
GOP
leaders
in the
House to
promise
a later
vote on
legislation
to
protect
younger
immigrants
whose
protection
against
deportation
under
former
President
Barack
Obama’s
Deferred
Action
for
Childhood
Arrivals
program,
or DACA,
will
expire
next
month.
The
White
House
backed
the deal
—
despite
President
Donald
Trump’s
outburst
a day
earlier
that
he’d
welcome
a
government
shutdown
if
Democrats
didn’t
accept
his
immigration-limiting
proposals.
Trump
himself
tweeted
that the
agreement
“is so
important
for our
great
Military,”
and he
urged
both
Republicans
and
Democrats
to
support
it.
But
the plan
faced
criticism
from
deficit
hawks in
his own
party.
Combined
with the
party’s
December
tax cut
bill,
the
burst in
military
and
other
spending
would
put the
GOP-controlled
government
on track
for the
first $1
trillion-plus
deficits
since
President
Barack
Obama’s
first
term and
the
aftermath
of the
most
recent
recession
nine
years
ago.
“This
budget
deal
shows
just how
broken
the
budget
process
is, that
Congress
thinks
the only
way to
agree to
a budget
is to
put
hundreds
of
billions
of
dollars
on the
nation’s
credit
card,”
said
Maya
MacGuineas,
president
of the
Center
for a
Responsible
Federal
Budget,
a
Washington-based
group
that
advocates
for
fiscal
discipline.
Sen.
Bob
Corker,
R-Tenn.,
said the
measure
amounts
to
“doubling
down on
the
irresponsible
mentality
in
Congress
of
spend-now-pay-later.”
The
deal
contains
far more
money
demanded
by
Democrats
than had
seemed
possible
only
weeks
ago,
including
$90
billion
in
disaster
aid for
Florida
and
Texas.
Some
other
veteran
Democrats
— some
of whom
said
holding
the
budget
deal
hostage
to
action
on
Dreamer
immigrants
had
already
proven
to be a
failed
strategy
—
appeared
more
likely
to
support
the
agreement
than
junior
progressives
elected
in
recent
years.
“We’re
not
going to
get DACA
as part
of
this,”
said
Rep.
John
Yarmuth
of
Kentucky,
the top
Democrat
on the
Budget
Committee.
“So if
we can
negotiate
a deal
like I
think
we’ve
gotten
that
essentially
meets
every
other
one of
our
priorities
then I
think
that’s
where a
lot of
the
Democrats
are.”
The
budget
agreement
would
give
both the
Pentagon
and
domestic
agencies
relief
from a
budget
freeze
that
lawmakers
say
threatens
military
readiness
and
training
as well
as
domestic
priorities
such as
combating
opioid
abuse
and
repairing
the
troubled
health
care
system
for
veterans.
The
core of
the
agreement
would
shatter
tight
“caps”
on
defense
and
domestic
programs
funded
by
Congress
each
year.
They are
a
hangover
from a
failed
2011
budget
agreement
and have
led to
military
readiness
problems
and
caused
hardship
at
domestic
agencies
such as
the
Environmental
Protection
Agency
and the
IRS.
The
agreement
would
give the
Pentagon
an $80
billion
increase
for the
current
budget
year for
core
defense
programs,
a 14
percent
increase
over
current
limits
and $26
billion
more
than
Trump’s
budget
request.
Nondefense
programs
would
receive
about
$60
billion
over
current
levels.
Those
figures
would be
slightly
increased
for the
2019
budget
year
beginning
Oct. 1.
Most
of the
spending
in the
measure
is
dependent
on a
follow-up
omnibus
appropriations
bill
that
will
take
weeks to
negotiate.
The
$89
billion
in
disaster
aid
would
bring
the
total
appropriated
in the
wake of
last
year’s
hurricane
season
to about
$140
billion.
The
agreement
would
increase
the
government’s
borrowing
cap to
prevent
a
first-ever
default
on U.S.
obligations
that
looms in
just a
few
weeks.
The debt
limit
would be
suspended
through
March of
2019,
putting
the next
vote on
it
safely
past
this
year’s
midterm
elections.
The
652-page
measure
was
unveiled
late
Wednesday.
It
contained
previously
unmentioned
extensions
of tax
provisions,
an array
of fee
renewals
to
partly
defray
the
measure’s
cost,
and
almost
400
pages
worth of
health
provisions.