House Republican: funding bill lifts ban on crude oil exports

The $1.1 trillion omnibus being discussed is the result of new Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) courting House Democrats to help secure passage as it is expected that the House Freedom Caucus, which is primarily comprised of members of the Tea Party, will vote against the bill.

Lawmakers have scrambled to put together a budget deal for the past two weeks.

The measure would finance the government through September 2016, according to the report.

“If you’re going to move forward and follow Speaker Ryan’s notion that we move onto offense next year…”

Instead, the omnibus will include language tightening the visa waiver program, which allows citizens of 38 countries expedited entry to the U.S. The provision would place restrictions on those who have traveled to Syria and Iraq in the previous five years, require greater information-sharing from participating countries, and authorize the Department of Homeland Security to remove a country from the program if it refuses to share data.

The measure to allow U.S. oil exports is at the centre of a deal announced by Republican Congressional leaders on Tuesday on spending and tax legislation.

Democrats pushed hard to win tax credits for renewable energy sources like wind and solar in exchange for lifting the oil export ban, in what they saw as a worthwhile trade-off, Democratic aides told CNN.

“We’ve made very clear to Republicans that if they want this – (lifting) an oil export ban – there must be included in this policies to reduce our carbon emissions and encourage use of renewable energy”, Reid said in a floor speech, effectively moving the negotiations into the public after weeks of closed-door talks.

The deal – Congress’ last piece of legislature for the year – would see lower funding for President Barack Obama’s Affordable Healthcare Act as well as the Environmental Protection Agency.

The House plans to vote onThursday, he said. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said of congressional Democrats. “We won some, we lost some”.

She said the bill will include a two-year delay to the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health plans and the medical device tax would also be postponed for two years. Environmentalists say lifting it would amount to a giant windfall for the oil industry.

Producers in the USA will have a much broader market to sell to if the export is finally lifted. “I don’t know if the lifting of the export ban will be among them, but our position on this is pretty clear”. The price tag could mushroom to several hundred billion dollars or more over a decade, which would further add to federal deficits.

Also in play were about 50 lapsed and expiring business and individual tax breaks that the two sides were looking to extend, in some cases permanently.

“Making those permanent is, I think, an important shot in the arm to our economy”, McConnell said at the Politico event.