Congress OKs short-term spending bill before deadline

House Speaker Paul Ryan has said he would not waive a House rule that requires legislation to be posted two days before the chamber votes on it. Aides and lawmakers said Friday they were hoping to complete the spending legislation on Monday, setting up a Wednesday vote in the House.

Avoiding the high drama of recent year-end budget fights, President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday keeping government agencies open into next week, giving White House and congressional bargainers more time to complete sweeping deals on taxes and federal spending.

The Senate approved the stopgap measure Thursday, and the House is expected to pass it Friday, when funding officially runs out, buying a few more days for talks. This stop-gap spending bill will give lawmakers more time to debate what the government should and shouldn’t fund in the final omnibus bill.

Democrats also demand that Republicans remove a almost 20-year-old funding ban that has prevented the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from researching gun violence.

“The process has stalled”, Lowey said on the House floor, “because Republicans insist on demonizing legal women’s reproductive health decisions, even putting women’s jobs at risk if their employers do not agree with their health choices”.

In September, lawmakers set the December 11 deadline for passing the spending bill, but they were unable to meet the deadline due to disagreements over a number of policy riders attached to the bill.

Ryan promised a fresh start for the House as the new Speaker. White House and congressional negotiators are searching for compromise on huge tax and spending bills with a combined price tag of well over $1 trillion, with leaders hoping to clinch agreements and let Congress adjourn next week for the year.

Complicating efforts is a separate battle to extend – or possibly make permanent – dozens of specialty tax breaks that are routinely approved at the end of each year. “We’re doing all of the things that you would do, the appropriators and the leaders, so that we can get to an agreement”.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the bill ensures that USA trade laws are enforced, that trade is streamlined and efficient and that trade agreements are not used to make significant changes to other US policies, including expansion of access to visas allowing foreign nationals to enter the country.

“I’m not going to be able to give him a vote, but I don’t think we need to have a revolt over it, either”, King said.

“I’m not a fan of continuing resolutions, they tend to be wasteful and inefficient; however at this point, I see this procedure as the best way forward”, Rogers said.

Some Democrats want at least a 10-year extension of wind and solar tax breaks in exchange for lifting the ban on USA crude oil exports as part of the spending bill, Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday. Democrats and the the administration want permanent tax credits for low income families and tax credits for renewable energy projects. A bare bones version could cost around $100 billion over the next decade, but talks are underway to add additional tax breaks that could swell its cost, perhaps to $700 billion or more.