03/23/2018

House Passes $1.3 Trillion Omnibus

Many lawmakers complained they did not have time to read the 2,200-page bill

The House on Thursday passed a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill that funds the federal government through Sept. 30. The Senate will need to pass the bill by midnight Friday to avert a government shutdown.

With Democrats and conservative Republicans complaining about the bill, the House barely passed a procedural rule earlier this morning to begin debate. Once that resolution was approved, however, the bill passed this afternoon by a wide margin, 256-167. Many lawmakers griped that they did not have time to read the 2,200-page bill that was only released Wednesday evening.

“The members know what is at stake,” said House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) last night. “We have to pay our troops and support our president.”

President Donald Trump was initially critical of the bill because it includes just $1.6 billion for construction of a U.S.-Mexico border wall, far short of the $25 billion that the administration sought. Trump had earlier offered to cut a deal with Democrats to extend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program in exchange for more wall funding, but that compromise did not materialize.

Democrats support the overall spending package, but House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) urged her members to vote against the House rule to begin debate on the bill because it does not include protections for Dreamers, the young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.

The omnibus is widely thought to be the last “must pass” legislation for Congress before the midterm elections this fall so there was considerable wrangling on various provisions that Republicans and Democrats wanted included in the package. Freedom Caucus Republicans refused to support the bill because it didn’t include the border wall funding that Trump wanted, nor did it include language that would have denied funding for sanctuary cities and Planned Parenthood.

Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows (R-NC) said that “wins for conservatives will be few and far between.”

Senate leaders are trying to determine if they can pass the bill today as well, though a Friday vote is more likely. Unanimous consent is required in the Senate to waive procedural rules and set up votes before the Friday night deadline and Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has hinted that he does not like parts of the bill, nor does he appreciate not having time to read it.

“I think it is safe to say that there are many voices in the Senate, including many Republicans, who are not real happy about having a (2,200-page) bill crammed down our throats at the last minute without time to read it,” Paul said on Wednesday. “It’s a really terrible, rotten, no-good way to run your government.”

This article was provided to OSAE by the Power of A and ASAE's Inroads.