Senate Agrees On Government Funding Bill WASHINGTON -- The Senate agreed on Saturday night to pass the $1.1 trillion government funding bill that will keep Uncle Sam in business through next September, while handing lucrative Christmas presents to Wall Street and political parties.
The bill, which funds the government for the rest of the fiscal year, had been tied up in procedural disagreements. But all senators eventually relented, paving the way for passage of the bill, which is expected late Saturday or early Sunday.
The Senate entered a rare weekend session after Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) refused to consent to an agreement Friday that would have given their colleagues the weekend off.
Forced to be in session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the opportunity to push ahead with a slew of President Barack Obama’s nominations, which Reid wants to pass before the Senate ends the session for the year.
Lee and Cruz blocked Reid’s plan Friday night, angering members of both parties who didn’t understand what the pair hoped to gain. Evidently, the two conservative allies have since been convinced to let votes proceed on the so-called "cromnibus" spending bill, rather than to stall until Monday morning.
But Lee and Cruz were expected to insist on raising a point of order against the bill's constitutionality, thereby forcing the Senate to vote on it. If they win the point, the entire bill would be scuttled, but Democratic and Republican aides said that was not likely.
The idea behind this move is to protest Obama's recent executive action that will spare up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Cruz and Lee were insisting on the vote because they argued that it would put senators on record either backing or opposing Obama’s efforts.
The spending bill provides funding through the end of the fiscal year for all government operations except the Department of Homeland Security, which only gets money to last through February. Republicans insisted on that shorter time frame because they intend to use the deadline to try to defund Obama’s immigration action. But Cruz suggested Friday night that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) might not actually follow through.
One controversial provision in the spending bill weakens the Dodd-Frank Act's restrictions on banks that want to trade in the same sorts of risky derivatives that sparked the financial meltdown of 2008, and allows the banks to back their bets with taxpayer-backed insurance. The bill also dramatically increases the amounts that wealthy donors can give to the major political parties. Some Democrats have said that the two measures together amount to letting wealthy Wall Street employees earn more money, which they can then use to reward lawmakers who backed the spending deal.
Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.
The bill, which funds the government for the rest of the fiscal year, had been tied up in procedural disagreements. But all senators eventually relented, paving the way for passage of the bill, which is expected late Saturday or early Sunday.
The Senate entered a rare weekend session after Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) refused to consent to an agreement Friday that would have given their colleagues the weekend off.
Forced to be in session, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) used the opportunity to push ahead with a slew of President Barack Obama’s nominations, which Reid wants to pass before the Senate ends the session for the year.
Lee and Cruz blocked Reid’s plan Friday night, angering members of both parties who didn’t understand what the pair hoped to gain. Evidently, the two conservative allies have since been convinced to let votes proceed on the so-called "cromnibus" spending bill, rather than to stall until Monday morning.
But Lee and Cruz were expected to insist on raising a point of order against the bill's constitutionality, thereby forcing the Senate to vote on it. If they win the point, the entire bill would be scuttled, but Democratic and Republican aides said that was not likely.
The idea behind this move is to protest Obama's recent executive action that will spare up to 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation. Cruz and Lee were insisting on the vote because they argued that it would put senators on record either backing or opposing Obama’s efforts.
The spending bill provides funding through the end of the fiscal year for all government operations except the Department of Homeland Security, which only gets money to last through February. Republicans insisted on that shorter time frame because they intend to use the deadline to try to defund Obama’s immigration action. But Cruz suggested Friday night that House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) might not actually follow through.
One controversial provision in the spending bill weakens the Dodd-Frank Act's restrictions on banks that want to trade in the same sorts of risky derivatives that sparked the financial meltdown of 2008, and allows the banks to back their bets with taxpayer-backed insurance. The bill also dramatically increases the amounts that wealthy donors can give to the major political parties. Some Democrats have said that the two measures together amount to letting wealthy Wall Street employees earn more money, which they can then use to reward lawmakers who backed the spending deal.
Michael McAuliff covers Congress and politics for The Huffington Post. Talk to him on Facebook.
0 Komentar untuk "Senate Agrees On Government Funding Bill"