Congress set for year-end push on tax, spending compromise

Government funding runs out Wednesday at midnight, but Congress may need to pass another short-term extension of a day or two to complete work on the $1.14 trillion government-wide spending bill.

WASHINGTON (AP) – White House and congressional negotiators are trading final offers over USA oil exports and concessions for home-state interests as they move toward wrapping up a tax and spending deal that would cap Congress’ year.

The two-part compromise included a measure funding federal agencies in the 2016 federal budget year that started October 1.

Negotiators expressed confidence they would finalize legislation extending dozens of tax breaks for businesses and individuals, and making some of those permanent.

The text of the more than 2,000-page spending bill was posted very early Wednesday morning after weeks of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill over contentious policy riders. A senior Senate Democratic aide told Reuters the legislative language was being reviewed to make sure it “reflects the negotiations”.

Democrats said they blocked over 150 GOP-sought provisions. Representative Ann Wagner confirmed that in return for a repeal of the oil export ban, Democrats won temporary tax breaks to boost wind and solar development, an important priority for President Barack Obama in the aftermath of a Paris climate change deal that calls for significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels.

Leaders also were considering an expansion of a domestic manufacturing tax deduction for refiners that may be harmed by oil exports – possibly increasing it by 3 percentage points and allowing those facilities to count up to 55 percent of their transportation costs toward the deduction, the lobbyists said.

“Even though something like the child tax credit and the rest are in that part of the bill, giving away so much to corporate America is just too much”, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. The deal, Congress’ last major piece of unfinished business for the year, became the vehicle for countless long-sought priorities and odds and ends, including reform of visa-free travel to the US and extensions of health benefits and compensation for 9/11 first responders.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., joins other House Republicans for a …

“I think there is a real appreciation for the tough hand Speaker Ryan was dealt, and the lack of leverage that he had”, Meadows said.

“We’re going to have some good things in here for job creators”, he said.

In exchange, Republicans have secured language in the omnibus that would lift the ban on exporting crude oil from the United States that has been in place since the 1970s. But the omnibus spending bill, needed to keep the government functioning, presented a particular challenge given the Obama administration’s opposition to numerous policy prescriptions that Republicans wanted to attach to the must-pass bill.

McConnell said Republicans were also aiming for a companion bill to extend a number of expired tax breaks permanently rather than every year, as Congress has been doing. The price tag could mushroom to several hundred billion dollars or more over a decade, which would further add to federal deficits.

The House will vote separately on the two measures, which will be combined into one package in the Senate.

The bill would postpone for two years taxes that were supposed to help pay for Obamacare, including the so-called “Cadillac tax” on expensive health insurance plans provided by some employers.