Senate Oks Year-End Budget Deal, Sends To Obama

A yes vote was to send the bill to the Senate, which then sent it to President Obama for his signature. It consists of one thing for almost everybody, from parents & teachers to Big Oil & little business, from 9/11 1st responders to cybersecurity hawks and much more.

Obama has promised to sign the measure, but it must first overcome some resistance. “I’m not wowed about everything in it – I’m sure that’s true for everybody – but it is a budget that, as I insisted, invests in our military and our middle class without ideological divisions”.

“Finally with this tax bill, families and businesses are going to have the long-term certainty that they need instead of scrambling year after year to find out what’s next”, declared House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Obama said he has a “good working relationship” with Ryan. These small policy points – referred to as riders – were sources of contention in the bill as the spending levels in the agreement meet those set out in the Bipartisan Budget Act Congress passed in November. Republicans trumpeted “pro-life and pro-Second Amendment protections” they were able to get into the legislation, while Democrats hailed their efforts to stop Republicans from rolling back protections on the environment and Dodd-Frank banking regulations. Sen. He pointed to an overhaul of USA prison sentences and a 12-nation Asia-Pacific trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as two issues he hopes lawmakers will address in 2016.

Congress passed sweeping fiscal legislation December 18, that will avert a government shutdown, lock in billions of dollars of tax breaks for corporations and scrap a 40-year ban on the export of US oil.

The House vote bundled with the spending measure a tax bill that passed on Thursday.

The 65-33 vote effectively wraps up the congressional session for the year, with the House and Senate adjourning for the holiday recess. Yet its looking like business as usual as lawmakers wrap up a year-end spending bill that pays for Planned Parenthood, the presidents health care law and other Obama administration priorities. They by no means achieved their principal objectives even with the Senate newly under GOP control, still alongside the best way they forced out Ryan’s predecessor, John Boehner, & almost shut down the Homeland Safety Department. Many say that’s helped destabilize some markets.

Among the 2016 presidential candidates, Republican Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rand Paul(R-KY) voted against the bill. Sen.

Included in the bill is a three-year renewal of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which collects fees from offshore oil and gas drilling and uses the money to help state and local governments buy, preserve and improve recreation on natural lands.

It may squeak through the House on a relatively narrow vote. Republican Senator Marco Rubio, who had been criticized by campaign rivals for missing votes, was absent from Congress on Friday. He did, however, release a statement in opposition to the bill, calling it an example of a “broken Washington”.

Republican Representative Steve King said in a news release he was disappointed none of his proposed amendments to the omnibus spending bill made it to the floor.

Yet few conservatives were complaining about Ryan, and many lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, proudly touted the accomplishments under the new speaker, including bipartisan bills on highways and education and a two-year budget and debt deal that paved the way for Friday’s spending and tax legislation.

Republicans, though they have majorities in both houses, handed Democrats a victory in the form of the omnibus through their disunity, said Mackenzie Eaglen, an American Enterprise Institute analyst and former congressional defense aide.

Obama called Ryan after the vote, thanking him for “making this work so we didn’t have a shutdown”, the speaker told reporters at his office in the Capitol.