Obama signs bipartisan tax and spending package

“But it’s how Congress ought to operate so that we can better protect the tax payer dollars and make our place the true representative body that it is”, Ryan said at a press conference Thursday. “I think he is respectful of the process and respectful of how legislation works”.

Republicans pushed a year-end tax-cut compromise toward House passage Thursday as Congress prepared to finish 2015 with a flurry of accomplishment and await the partisan collisions sure to dominate the coming election year. He pointed to an overhaul of US prison sentences and a 12-nation Asia-Pacific trade deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as two issues he hopes lawmakers will address in 2016. In expedited floor action, on the edge of the holiday recess, the Senate voted to end debate on the overall legislation, dispensed with several procedural steps, and approved the package.

On Capitol Hill, it was a harmonious conclusion to a year that was driven largely by tea party lawmakers pushing for showdowns with Obama on immigration, Planned Parenthood and Obamacare. Ryan’s predecessor, John Boehner, rarely got that kind of backing from Republicans on a spending bill when ran the House.

Today, the House and Senate passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill that averts a government shutdown and funds the government for the next year. Nonetheless, he voted against the bill because he said it contained “unacceptable” provisions weakening oversight of government surveillance.

Fellow Republican presidential candidates Sen.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted against it, as did Sen.

Ryan has repeatedly stressed he doesn’t like rolling up all the spending bills, along with a myriad of policy provisions, into one measure.

While Republicans voted almost in lockstep for the tax measure, it split Democrats, who opposed it by 106-77. Marco Rubio of Florida wasn’t there to vote. Bernie Sanders, an Independent from Vermont vying for the Democratic nomination.

“The bipartisan compromise secures meaningful wins for Republicans and the American people”, said Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. Then, Congress would adjourn until January.

“After long and serious study of the bill’s details, I concluded that while I detest lifting the oil export ban, I will not empower Big Oil to upend so many victories for hard-working American families”, Mrs. Pelosi said in a “dear colleagues” letter urging Democrats to support the omnibus.

For example, in exchange for Democrats’ support for lifting ban on the crude oil exports, Republicans agreed to extend wind and solar tax credits and authorise a conservation fund for three years.

“Kudos to him as well”, Obama said, along with “all the leaders and appropriators who were involved in this process”.

“They wanted big oil so much that they gave away the store”, Pelosi said. She voted for the final bill, saying that Democrats won “significant concessions” in the measure. It awards increases of about 6 percent, on average, above tight spending caps that were a relic of a 2011 budget and debt deal – and were opposed by both GOP defense hawks and Democrats seeking boosts in domestic spending. It contains spending boosts for veterans and medical research.

The tax deal included the extension of more than 50 expiring tax credits, making more than 20 permanent, including credits for companies’ research and equipment purchases, as well as reductions for low-earning families and households with children and college students.

“It strengthens cybersecurity programs, renews the health care program for September 11 responders and ends a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports”.

Among other policy shifts, the bill would delay contentious pieces of the 2010 health law, by suspending the excise tax on medical devices for 2016 and 2017 and delaying for two years the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health insurance.