House Passes Mammoth Spending Bill
March 22 2018 - 12:36PM
Dow Jones News
By Kristina Peterson and Louise Radnofsky
WASHINGTON -- The House Thursday passed a $1.3 trillion spending
bill that will fund the government until October, less than 24
hours after the sprawling bill was released.
The vote was 256-157. The legislation would lift spending for
the military and a wide range of domestic program for the remainder
of the fiscal year, which runs through September. Congressional
leaders unveiled the 2,232-page bill around 8 p.m. Wednesday night,
after weeks of intense wrangling over its policy details.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said the bill would reverse
the military's "staggering readiness crisis" with an infusion of
new military spending. "Today we begin to reverse that damage," he
told reporters Thursday.
The bill now heads to the Senate, which has little time to pass
it before the government's current funding expires at 12:01 a.m.
Saturday. That could create some last-minute drama in the Senate,
where a single senator can prevent the chamber from speeding up its
time-consuming procedures.
Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), whose objections to a two-year budget
deal triggered a brief government shutdown last month, signaled
Thursday he wasn't pleased with the process that had produced the
spending bill.
Mr. Paul tweeted that his office printer had needed more than
two hours to print the bill. "Well here it is, all 2,232
budget-busting pages. The House already started votes on it. The
Senate is expected to soon. No one has read it. Congress is
broken," Mr. Paul said.
Timing hurdles aside, the bill is expected to pass the Senate
with bipartisan support. And President Donald Trump will sign the
bill once it reaches his desk, top White House officials said
Thursday, ending speculation that he would decline to do so amid
objections from some Republicans over concessions made on
immigration and other issues.
Mick Mulvaney, the president's budget chief, made the commitment
in a hastily scheduled on-camera briefing. "Yes," he said in
opening remarks, the president will sign it. "It does a lot of what
we wanted" on immigration, Mr. Mulvaney added. "The president
supports the bill" and "looks forward to signing it."
Democratic leaders applauded the bill's boost for domestic
programs, including funding increases for the National Institutes
of Health, Head Start and child-care programs, opioid research and
treatment, veterans' health care and infrastructure.
The bill ends -- for now -- one of the most contentious fights
between Democrats and Mr. Trump, by including $1.57 billion for
construction of physical barriers on the border with Mexico and
other security measures. Mr. Trump won funding for 33 miles of new
fencing on the Texas border -- about half of what he requested. He
also got funding for 60 miles of replacement or secondary fencing,
which is built alongside existing barriers. That is more than he
asked for but is also far less controversial.
"Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be
forthcoming," Mr. Trump said in a tweet late Wednesday. "Had to
waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay
increase and new equipment."
Democrats won a number of concessions, particularly regarding
immigration enforcement inside the U.S. The bill provides for
minimal or no increases to enforcement officers and detention bed
space and no punishments for sanctuary cities. In addition, the new
border construction must use designs now in use, which rules out a
solid concrete wall.
The spending bill includes some of the first legislative steps
to rein in gun violence, after a string of recent mass shootings.
The legislation includes a measure from Sen. John Cornyn (R.,
Texas) to strengthen compliance with the national background check
system for buying firearms. The bill would also end what
gun-control advocates say has effectively been a ban on federal
gun-violence research.
Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and
Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 22, 2018 13:21 ET (17:21 GMT)
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