“Not everybody gets what they want when you negotiate in divided government”, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., told journalists, a nod toward the tough bargaining so far between President Barack Obama and the GOP-controlled Congress. “But I think we will complete this”.
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Another possible delay for the omnibus bill might be a self-imposed policy by House Republicans that legislation be made publicly available for three days before voting on it.
Republicans want legislation attached to the spending bill to thwart some of the Obama administration’s environmental and financial industry regulations.
White House and congressional negotiators searched for compromise Thursday on huge tax and spending bills with a combined price tag of well over $1 trillion, with leaders hoping to clinch agreements and let Congress adjourn for the year next week. Ways and Means is the chief tax-writing committee in the House of Representatives. “I wouldn’t vote for it and wouldn’t recommend anybody do that”.
“I believe we are making good progress on a final, full-year appropriations package”, he added.
Even so, Democrats also want to include their own policy riders such as repealing the ban on gun violence study by the Center for Disease Control.
Democrats, meanwhile, seek a permanent extension of the current Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit and the college-tuition tax credit, which are set to expire at the end of 2017. US Secretary of State John Kerry, right, shakes hands with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon during a meeting on the sidelines of the COP 21 United Nations conference on climate change, in Le Bourget, on the out… Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said Wednesday. This scenario would require another short-term spending bill.
Both issues became priorities after terrorist attacks that killed 130 people in Paris in November and 14 in San Bernardino on December 2.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the earliest votes planned for next week would take place on Tuesday evening, giving the Senate just over 24 hours to meet the new funding deadline. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., for blocking a provision aimed at bringing more water to the state’s farm belt amid a severe drought.
It has been law since the mid-1990s, and “it’s a awful thing”, Pelosi said, surrounded by relatives of gun victims.
Case in point: On Thursday, Ryan helped make it possible for his party to elect Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), one of the most prominent members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, to one of the most influential committees in the House of Representatives.
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Information for this article was contributed by Alan Fram, Erica Werner and Mary Clare Jalonick of The Associated Press and by Erik Wasson, Billy House, Roxana Tiron, James Rowley and Kathleen Miller of Bloomberg News.
