The legislation pairs two huge bills: a $1.14 trillion governmentwide spending measure to fund every cabinet agency through September, and a $680 billion tax package extending dozens of breaks touching all sectors of the economy, making several of them permanent and tossing the entire cost onto the deficit.
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President Barack Obama swiftly signed the measure into law as he prepared to leave Washington for California, and then a family vacation in Hawaii.
After weeks of negotiations, Republicans and Democrats reached agreement on the budget this week, which was passed on Friday, first by the House of Representatives by a vote of 316-113, and subsequently by the Senate by a margin of 65-33.
Senators are expected vote on the budget measure in combination with a year-end tax plan that gives breaks to working families and a wide variety of business interests.
With the votes, lawmakers wrapped up a surprisingly productive, bipartisan burst of late-session legislation in a divided Congress.
Obama will sign the measure, which includes numerous spending increases he fought for all year and is largely free of GOP attempts to block his moves on the environment, financial regulation, and consumer protection.
Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate who was on the campaign trail and skipped the vote, criticized the bill from afar, saying Washington rammed the deal through “in secret”.
“Truly historic”, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., boasted on the Senate floor as he and Congress’ other top leaders of both parties took turns claiming credit for the holiday-season largess.
“This bipartisan compromise secures meaningful wins for Republicans and the American people, such as the repeal of the outdated, anti-growth ban on oil exports”, Ryan said, also declaring victory on the large budget increase for the Pentagon and curbs on the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.
On Thursday, Republicans powered the tax portion of the package past divided Democrats by a 318-109 vote.
“They wanted big oil so much that they gave away the store”, Pelosi said. Extends tax breaks for energy produced from renewable sources such as solar, wind and geothermal energy and tax breaks for biodiesel fuels and electric cars and motorcycles.
Several Democrats, including party leaders in the House, opposed the bill, warning it is not paid for and will only deepen United States debt.
The budget pact is the last major item in a late-session flurry of bipartisanship in Washington, including easy passage of long-stalled legislation funding highway programs and a rewrite of education programs. More than 50 expiring tax cuts will be extended, with more than 20 becoming permanent, including credits for companies’ expenditures for research and equipment purchases and reductions for lower-earning families and households with children and college students.
Their opposition puts them at odds with the White House, which on Wednesday announced its support for the tax bill as well as the spending bill.
Architects of the deal worked overtime this week cajoling rank-and-file members on both sides into backing the $1.149 trillion, catch-all bill which came in at more than 2,000 pages.
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And it includes a two-year moratorium on the so-called medical device tax, a provision of Obama’s health care law that angered Republicans and Democrats alike.
