Congress Working Up Final Stages of Huge Tax, Budget Bills

The Senate passed the legislation by voice vote on Thursday.

“At this point it is unfortunately necessary for us to have a little more time to complete our negotiations”, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said on the House floor Friday. They are pushing to lift a 40-year-old ban on oil exports, roll back some of the Obama administration’s environmental and financial regulations, and halt the admission of refugees from Syria and Iraq while the administration overhauls the refugee-vetting process.

“This is one where we were served up a particular deck of cards, if you will, and we’ve got to play it in order to keep from getting a shutdown”. “But I believe that we will successfully complete these negotiations”.

The Senate passed the temporary funding measure on a voice vote Thursday, and the House followed suit today.

But Congress looked set to push up against the new deadline next week as talks on legislation to fund the government through September 2016 dragged on over efforts to attach controversial policy provisions to the spending measure.

“I’m not going to put a deadline on it”, he said.

Earlier, Ryan assured lawmakers from Northeastern states that legislation extending health benefits and a compensation fund for 9/11 first responders would be made part of the spending bill.

Congress may need to pass another short-term patch to prevent the government’s funding from lapsing.

Much uncertainty existed as to whether Congress would be able to pull of such a major tax bill that has permanent extensions that benefit both sides or opt simply for an extension of two years of the current tax breaks.

“Everything is tenuous right now”.

WASHINGTON (AP) – As negotiators in Paris worked to finalize a global agreement on climate change, the Republican-controlled House on Friday approved a bill that would block trade deals from being used to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

“Republicans’ insistence on including unsafe, harmful policies in the spending bill has halted progress”, Nita Lowey of NY, the top Democrat on the appropriations panel, said. She contended Democrats proposed just a few, “and ours were very reasonable”. “Don’t expect us to vote for a bill that has a ban in it. Take the ban out”.