House OKs 1.3 Trillion Dollar Spending Bill

. . . bolstering defense and domestic programs; Senate must act by Friday to avert government shutdown.

Mar 22, 2018 by John Eggerton; Original article here.

S4WT Note: Not a single mention of HR.4986 and it’s 4G/5G Densification plan to Install Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antennas (CPMRA) in residential neighborhoods.

AP’s latest story:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump will sign a $1.3 trillion budget bill that boosts military spending, but does not include all the funding he sought for his promised border wall.

White House officials say the plan includes key administration priorities, particularly defense spending. They argue they could not get everything they want because Democratic votes are needed in the closely divided Senate.

Budget Director Mick Mulvaney said the bill was not perfect, but "that’s how the process works." He noted the deal includes at least some money for new construction along the border. Trump sounded less than enthused by the bill Wednesday night. He tweeted: "Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment."

This is a breaking news story; please check back for additional updates.

The AP’s earlier story follows:

WASHINGTON (AP) — A sweeping $1.3 trillion budget bill that substantially boosts military and domestic spending but leaves behind young immigrant "Dreamers" cleared an important procedural hurdle Thursday as lawmakers struggled to meet a Friday deadline to fund the government or face a shutdown.

The bill negotiated by congressional leaders, who hope for a final House vote later in the day, would deprive President Donald Trump of some of his border wall money and take only incremental steps to address gun violence. It also would substantially increase the federal deficit.

House members voted narrowly, 211-207, to begin debate and move toward a vote that would then send the bill to the Senate. Although some conservative Republicans balked at the size of the spending increases and the rush to pass the bill, the White House said the president backed the legislation. Trump himself sounded less than enthused, tweeting late Wednesday: "Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment."

Talks had stretched into Wednesday night before the 2,232-page text was finally made public (HR.1625).

"No bill of this size is perfect," said House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis. "But this legislation addresses important priorities and makes us stronger at home and abroad."

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the No. 2 Democrat in the House, complained that the late-night release left lawmakers with too little time to examine the massive bill before voting on it.

"This is an abomination of the legislative process," Hoyer thundered, holding up a bulky print-out as debate on the measure began. He invited any lawmaker who had read the entire bill to join him in the well of the House. No one did. Hoyer then admitted he hadn’t read the bill either.

Despite those complaints, congressional leaders were hoping to approve the bill in the House later Thursday and send it to the Senate for a final vote. A stopgap measure may be needed to ensure federal offices aren’t hit with a partial shutdown at midnight Friday when funding for the government expires.

Negotiators have been working for days — and nights — on details of the bill, which is widely viewed as the last major piece of legislation likely to move through Congress in this election year. Lawmakers in both parties sought to attach their top priorities.

Two of the biggest remaining issues had been border wall funds and a legislative response to gun violence after the clamor for action following recent school shootings, including the one in Parkland, Florida.
On guns, leaders agreed to tuck in bipartisan provisions to bolster school safety funds and improve compliance with the criminal background check system for firearm purchases. The bill states that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention can do research on gun violence, though not advocacy, an idea Democrats pushed.

But there was no resolution for Dreamers, the young immigrants who have been living in the United States illegally since childhood but whose deportation protections are being challenged in court after Trump tried to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA.

Democrats temporarily shut down the government earlier this year as they fought for that protection. But the issue only rose to a discussion item when Trump made a late-hour push for a deal in exchange for $25 billion in border wall funds.
Instead, Trump is now poised to win $1.6 billion for barriers along the border, but none of it for the new prototypes he recently visited in California. Less than half the nearly 95 miles of border construction, including levees along the Rio Grande in Texas, would be for new barriers, with the rest for repair of existing segments.

In one win for immigrant advocates, negotiators rejected Trump’s plans to hire hundreds of new Border Patrol and immigration enforcement agents.

"We are disappointed that we did not reach agreement on Dreamer protections that were worthy of these patriotic young people," said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

The emerging plan removes a much-debated earmark protecting money for a rail tunnel under the Hudson River. The item was a top priority of Trump’s most powerful Democratic rival, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York, but Trump vowed to veto the bill over the earmark. Under the legislation, the project would remain eligible for funding, however, and a Schumer aide said it was likely to win well more than half of the $900 million sought for the project this year.

The core purpose of the bill is to increase spending for military and domestic programs that have been sharply squeezed under a 2011 agreement that was supposed to cap spending. It gives Trump a huge budget increase for the military, while Democrats scored wins on infrastructure and other domestic programs that they failed to get under President Barack Obama.

That largesse has drawn opposition from some fiscal conservatives and could make passage a potentially tricky process.

Last month, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul triggered a brief government shutdown over his objections to the deficit spending. On Wednesday, he tweeted his opposition to the emerging legislation, known as an "omnibus."

"It’s a good thing we have Republican control of Congress or the Democrats might bust the budget caps, fund planned parenthood and Obamacare, and sneak gun control without due process into an Omni … wait, what?" Paul tweeted.

Most essential was support from Trump, who has been known to threaten to veto legislation even when his team is involved in the negotiations. Word of Trump’s discontent on Wednesday sent Ryan to the White House with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on the phone. White House aides said the president’s support was never in doubt.

Both parties touted $4.6 billion in total funding to fight the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic, a $3 billion increase. More than $2 billion would go to strengthen school safety through grants for training, security measures and treatment for the mentally ill. Medical research at the National Institutes of Health, a longstanding bipartisan priority, would receive a record $3 billion increase to $37 billion. Funding was also included for election security ahead of the 2018 midterms.