Ryan pushes mental health response to shooting

Ryan, who took over the House gavel just over a month ago, says Republicans must go beyond trying to undo President Barack Obama’s agenda.

The omnibus debate is the latest challenge for Ryan, who could find himself facing the same dilemma that led to the ouster of his predecessor, former Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). “If they do not want to shut down the government they are going to look at our counter-offer and hopefully we’ll have a final bill before December 11”.

“We want to see progress and have pride”, Ryan will say, according to excerpts of the speech obtained by the Washington Examiner.

The GOP emphasis on national security has, for now, supplanted Republicans’ focus earlier this year on stripping federal funding for Planned Parenthood Federation of America in the spending bill, likely avoiding a standoff with Democrats over the women’s health organization. We need a new president.

Citing dozens of “poison-pill” riders, House Democrats have rejected the Republicans’ initial year-end government funding bill and plan to respond with their own alternative package.

“A lot of the bill is closed out”, said the source.

An initial end-stage offer from top Republicans was flatly rejected by Democrats whose votes will be needed to carry the $1.1 trillion measure through the House.

Underscoring the political pressure on lawmakers in Washington, the attorney general of Texas filed a lawsuit Wednesday against the administration to try to block Syrian refugees from resettling there.

House and Senate Appropriations negotiators from both parties have been passing offers back and forth for the past four weeks on all 12 spending bills. “The speaker supported it, but he’s deferring to Chairman (Hal) Rogers”, Ryan’s spokeswoman said. But Mr. Connolly said the president also should not veto the spending bill over the refugee issue.

But Democratic leaders said “more than 30″ Republican policy amendments, known as riders, made the package unacceptable, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the budget talks. House conservatives said Wednesday they would demand language in the spending bill at least as strong as legislation already passed by the House, with support from 47 Democrats, to greatly increase hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees.

“They sent us an offer that was anti-worker, anti-labor, anti-education, anti-environment… anti-refugee”, said top House Appropriations Committee Democrat Nita Lowey of NY.

He also praised Obama for tackling the visa-waiver system which governs many thousands more people than the refugee program and said he’s been in recent discussions with Republicans about how to move it through the House.