Trillion Dollar Spending Bill Passed by Congress

It had swept through the House on a pair of decisive votes on Thursday and Friday, marking a peaceful end to a yearlong struggle over the budget, taxes and Republican efforts to derail the president’s regulatory agenda.

A $1.1 trillion federal spending bill cleared the U.S. House Friday by a 316-113 vote.

Obama welcomed the sprawling legislation, a rare compromise product of the divided government. “But that’s the nature of legislation and compromise, and I think the system worked”. “It was a good win”.

In what was seen as the first major test for new House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin), 150 Republicans and 166 Democrats in the House voted yes, while in the Senate, the bill passed 65-33, with 27 Republicans voting yes and 38 Democrats voting yes.

In a media release after the vote, Democratic Representative Dave Loebsack said, “By passing this bill, Congress has ended the constant threat of a Republican government shutdown that the nation has been facing”. 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.

The congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the legislation passed Friday will increase the 2016 fiscal year budget deficit by $157 billion and by $95 billion in 2017.

“The product we’re delivering this year is bad”, GOP Rep. Dave Brat of Virginia told the Associated Press. Several of the GOP presidential candidates within the Senate have been amongst these opposing the legislation, although Sen.

Republican presidential contenders Sens.

Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted against it, as did Sen. “As you may be aware, the Speaker has agreed to take action on restructuring legislation by March 31, 2016, and last evening, he committed to start that process with a hearing on our first day back in January”, Pelosi wrote in a dear colleagues letter. GOP victories include a big boost for the military and the end of a four-decade ban of exporting US crude oil.

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

And in what appeared like a warning to Ryan and his party, Pelosi said, “They have the majority”.

The credit until now has faced periodic review as part of a list of “temporary” tax breaks known as the “extenders” that Congress has routinely renewed for years.

McCain complained that the legislation includes money for ships that the Navy said it didn’t need, and a huge increase in medical research paid for out of Pentagon funds. More than 50 expiring tax cuts will be extended with more than 20 becoming permanent, including credits for companies’ expenditures for research and equipment purchases and reductions for lower-earning families and households with children and college students. But she said Republicans’ “desperate thirst for lifting the oil export ban empowered Democrats to win significant concessions throughout the omnibus, including ridding the bill of scores of deeply destructive poison pill riders”.

The Senate is also expected on Friday to pass a sweeping package extending tax breaks and credits worth US$629 billion aimed at providing greater certainty for businesses and millions of Americans.

The combined bill will bar the government from listing the sage grouse as an endangered species, but it does not include Republican-backed provisions to prohibit the EPA from regulating air emissions related to global climate change.