Longish article on the budget deal, with a few excerpts.
Government shutdown set to end as House passes sweeping budget bill
By Mike DeBonis and Erica Werner
February 9 at 6:44 AM Email the author
a few excerpts:
Congress moved to end a five-hour government shutdown early Friday morning after the House voted to support a massive bipartisan budget deal that stands to add hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending on the military, domestic programs and disaster relief.
The 240-to-186 House vote gaveled to a close just after 5:30 a.m., nearly four hours after the Senate cleared the legislation on a vote of 71 to 28, with wide bipartisan support.
But action did not come soon enough to avoid a brief government shutdown — the second in three weeks — thanks to a one-man protest from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who delayed the Senate vote past midnight to mark his opposition to an estimated $320 billion addition to the federal budget deficit.
President Trump is expected to sign the bill later Friday to officially end the second shutdown of his presidency.
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Pelosi is under intense pressure from immigration activists and liberals in her caucus to take a stand for the dreamers because they face losing deportation protections under the Trump administration.
Supporters of these immigrants have watched in growing outrage as Democrats have failed repeatedly to achieve results for the cause. They want Democrats to block must-pass bills until action is taken to protect dreamers, even after last month’s shutdown failed to achieve anything more than a commitment from McConnell to debate the issue on the Senate floor.
Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.) said his colleagues faced risks if they voted for the bill — in his words, “to deport dreamers.”
“You all know that on the progressive side of the Democratic Party, this is not going away,” said Gutierrez.
Several House Democrats emerged from the Thursday-night caucus meeting resolved to hold the line.
[....]
But others were unconvinced. Some were skittish over another shutdown, especially with Senate Democrats largely on board with the spending deal, and others simply thought the budget deal was too good to pass up.
Rep. Terri Sewell (D-Ala.) cited a pair of federal health programs that were extended as part of the deal, while Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) said he simply thought an extended shutdown would be counterproductive.
“I believe harm would have flowed toward dreamers had the government shut down,” he said. “What we saw last time was that public support actually fell. And it’s an awfully hard intellectual contortion to argue against a bill where we won pretty much every battle.”
Seventy-three House Democrats voted for the bill, while 119 voted against it. Among Republicans, 167 supported it and 67 voted no.
Republican leaders, who have typically emerged from spending battles facing questions about divisions in their own party, were more than pleased to observe the Democratic split.
“They had a bad strategy when they came up with this idea in December, and they have been fractured ever since,” said Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), the GOP’s chief deputy whip. “To me, it’s a fascinating display of a bipartisan win and at the same time, Democrats ripping themselves apart about a bipartisan agreement. It doesn’t make any damn sense.”
But the spectacle in the Senate, prompted entirely by Paul, tempered any Republican glee.
more at the link |
