U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday said bills to fund the government and extend tax breaks are expected to garner support both from Republicans and Democrats in the chamber.
Advertisement
The $1.1 trillion spending bill funds all government agencies through the 2016 budget year.
“We’ll be posting sometime today”, Ryan said. “We won some, we lost some”, Ryan, R-Wis., said at a breakfast hosted by Politico.
Language limiting reimbursements to insurance companies losing money on the federal and state health insurance exchanges was retained, despite Democratic efforts to erase it.
House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) are able to brag about at least some policy provisions included in the spending bill, most significantly measures ending a 40-year-old ban on oil exports and stopping a bailout of Obamacare’s risk corridor program for health insurers. First, they would have to pass yet another short-term government funding extension, since the current one runs out today at midnight.
“Democrats won some; they lost some”, he said.
“We didn’t win everything we wanted”, Ryan said on Fox News. “At the end of the day we’re going to get this done”.
WASHINGTON (AP) – White House and congressional negotiators are trading final offers over US oil exports and concessions for home-state interests as they move toward wrapping up a tax and spending deal that would cap Congress’ year.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., left, talks with Sen.
The bill also delays or completely suspends taxes that are meant to pay for Mr Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The White House and many economists have defended the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost employer-sponsored health plans as a way to reduce health costs and make the health care system more efficient.
Eager to enact the tax changes and federal funding without a veto fight that could prompt a government shutdown, Republicans have put those provisions in separate legislation to be voted on in January. It also includes increases in domestic and defense spending.
The text of the more than 2,000-page spending bill was posted very early Wednesday morning after weeks of negotiations between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill over contentious policy riders. And lifting the ban on exporting crude oil would have been better if passed a year or two ago when prices weren’t in freefall. A tax on medical device manufacturers also would be eliminated for two years.
Republicans announced late Tuesday that bargainers had agreed to a bipartisan package extending dozens of tax breaks for businesses and families and financing government for 2016. In exchange, Democrats were pressing for tax breaks for renewable energy sectors like solar and wind production. Low-income people with three or more children could continue to claim a larger Earned Income Tax Credit.
Still, Hoyer said he opposed the plan because its cost wouldn’t be paid for, citing a “misguided double standard that investments in the growth of jobs and opportunities must be offset, but tax cuts are always free”.
“Even though something like the child tax credit and the rest are in that part of the bill, giving away so much to corporate America is just too much”, said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
Advertisement
Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Donna Cassata.
