A GOVERNMENT shutdown slated by midnight of Friday, Dec. 12 was narrowly averted after the House of Representatives approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill to keep Congress open through September. The Senate also agreed to a two-day extension of current funding levels, giving itself more time to approve the House bill.
Despite Democratic objections to the added finances, after a chaotic day on Capitol Hill, the House passed the bill in a narrow 219-206 vote.
Early Friday morning, President Obama signed the deadline extension to midnight Saturday, Dec. 13.
“This, by definition, was a compromise bill. Had I been able to draft my own legislation, get it passed without any Republican votes, I suspect it would be slightly different,” he said. “That is not the circumstance we find ourselves in, and I think what the American people very much are looking for is responsible governance and the willingness to compromise.”
Though the House bill was passed to give senators more time to work through procedural rules, debate and vote, the Senate would likely take action Friday night before sending it to the President for his signature. But debate could spill into next week if opposing conservatives and liberals choose to fight.
The bill—which garnered significantly more support from Republicans than Democrats—would keep most of the government running through the end of September, but only funds the Department of Homeland Security through February, when Republicans in the House have vowed to pass new restrictions on the department’s actions following Obama’s executive order on immigration.
Conservative Republicans were against the 1,603-page bill because it did not block funds for Obama’s immigration order.
Both the Obama administration and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), opponents on the immigration action and past budget battles, were both pushing for the bill’s passage.
White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough also urged Democratic lawmakers during a late-Thursday caucus meeting to vote for the bill because they would lose much of their leverage on future spending bills, lawmakers said.
Democratic Rep. John Larson of Connecticut said that lobbying from the President helped move things along with the caucus.
“Obviously, I think the President also getting on the phone—some working the respective caucuses—was influential,” Larson said.
However, many progressives were outraged at the bill’s passage and suggested it would undermine Democrats’ effectiveness down the line.
“What I see is our Democratic Party—in a weakened position and trying to protect our constituents and the people. And at the same time having to make some terrible choices,” Calif. Rep. Maxine Waters, a key Democratic opponent of the bill, said after the vote.
Waters also said the vote was an example of “old politics of fixing things around the edges so that you can feel better, rather than putting up a strong fight” and standing against Republican attempts to insert unpalatable policies into bills, which she suggested is more likely in next year when Republicans take full control of Congress.
Other Democrats saw the bill’s passage as a more cooperative effort between the two parties, and a signal that they can move past political gridlock.
“It’s an economic message of, we can get something done. We’re not going to always be dysfunctional, and I think that’s a welcome message to voters,” said Virginia Democrat Rep. Gerry Connolly. “They want to see that. And we don’t lose a thing.”
The vote on Thursday, Dec. 11 was delayed for hours as leaders scrambled to move the bill across the finish line. It was a fitting chaos for a Congress that has already gone through one government shutdown last year, and has been generally characterized by turmoil.
The tumult also highlighted the divide between President Obama and congressional Democrats. House Democrat leader Nancy Pelosi was strongly opposed to the measure, even as the President was pressing her members to support it.
“The bill puts a big bow on a holiday gift for the Wall Street contributors who get special treatment in the provisions of this bill,” said Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) ahead of the vote. “It’s all about stuffing the silk stockings, and these people want to gamble with our money.”
The result caps a long, frenzied day on Capitol Hill in which House Democrats nearly upended the spending bill, with liberal Democrats replacing the most conservative Republicans as significant obstacles to passing difficult fiscal legislation.
The measure will keep domestic spending largely flat, and provide billions in additional funds to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria, as well as the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
(With reports from CNN, Reuters, Washington Post)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(LA Weekend December 13-16, 2014 Sec. A pg.1)
