Congress in final-stage talks on massive budget, tax bills

USA lawmakers are negotiating a $1.15 trillion funding bill to pay for government operations through September, with the deadline for action Friday at midnight, when the existing spending authority expires.

The House on Tuesday passed a $30.3 billion spending plan vastly different from the $30.8 billion measure already approved by the Senate with the governor’s blessing.

“This bill would say to the NRA that you no longer have a stranglehold on information, on research”, Rep. Pelosi said.

Wolf has said little publicly about the continuing impasse, besides insisting that he remains committed to a deal he struck last month with House and Senate leaders.

Negotiators plan to work through the weekend and a vote on any deal could occur as early as Monday. Barbara Mikulski, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.

“We’re working together to get something that’s close to where that (framework deal) is, but we’d still like some tweaks, and we also need to finalize the revenue package”, Miskin said. “There are a series of minimal things we can do in an effort to convince hunters and sportsmen that we are not trying to impede their rights but we are trying to get guns out of the hands of the wrong people”.

“It would really be stupid for the Democrats to not take the full program that will continue” some of the tax breaks long-term, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told reporters.

Obama blasted the Republican Congress for refusing to change the country’s gun laws in response to a string of mass shootings across the states.

-INDIVIDUALS: Democrats want to make some tax credits permanent for college students and families with children, and earned income tax credits for lower-earning married couples and families with more than two children.

The Democrats have been seeking to get Republican leaders, who control both houses of Congress, to take up legislation.

According to The Hill newspaper, both sides are coming to agreement, although there remains several issues left to be hammered out.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, previously expressed reluctance to give Democrats their request for a two-year delay in the Cadillac tax without extracting concessions in return.

“I voted for a budget in June, and then an override and a stopgap”, she said.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had announced the renewed push to repeal the ban Thursday morning during a speech marking the third anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., shooting. Jordan said Thursday. “Do you think the American people are going to like that? That is not doing our jobs as members of Congress”, he said. He and other witnesses at the panel also support a bill sponsored by Republican Peter King, which would prevent people on a government terrorist watch list from buying firearms. Dickey has said repeatedly that he regrets the amendment and did not anticipate its consequences.

The House is expected to pass a similar measure Friday. “We are making some progress but it’s been slow”.