Among other highlights, it permanently funds a health program for 9/11 workers and grants President Obama new powers to require some visitors from Visa Waiver Program countries to face extra scrutiny if they’ve been to Iraq or Syria recently.
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“Kudos to him as well”, Obama said, along with “all the leaders and appropriators who were involved in this process”.
The legislation – separate versions of which were approved earlier this year by the Senate and House of Representatives – was tucked into a spending bill to keep the government operating, making passage likely in the coming days. Most of the heavy lifting on this bill was done by Ryan’s predecessor, John Boehner, R-Ohio, who cut a budget deal with Democrats right before he stepped down that set the overall spending levels.
Republicans were evenly split with 27 of them voting in favor and 26 against the bill. Democratic also pushed through higher domestic budgets and tax breaks for working families and renewable energy. It offers aid to students, low-income parents, teachers and others, attracting support from the White House and House Democrats. Pelosi, however, doesn’t have a unified caucus either: Many Democrats are criticizing the legislation because it removes a decades-old ban on crude oil exports and omits financial protections for Puerto Rico, which is struggling with a debt crisis. Their votes for the bill were key because it was believed the GOP could provide only about 100 votes for the deal so Democrats would need to provide the rest to make it to the necessary 218 vote threshold.
“I’m not wild about everything in it”, Obama said of the legislation.
The spending bill not only prevents a government shutdown until next fall, but it also contains a few policy provisions. “But it is a budget that, as I insisted, invests in our military and our middle class without ideological provisions that would have weakened Wall Street reform or rules on big polluters”.
But Tea Party momentum has slowed as the federal deficit drops from its peak of $1.41 trillion in 2009 due to the economic recovery. Previous efforts were bogged down by opposition from activists who feared it would result in excessive government intrusion, and conservatives who argue it would create a new bureaucracy. “Corporate lobbyists had a field day, but working Americans lost out”, Cotton said.
In a procedural quirk, the House passed most of the tax cuts – virtually all of them financed with deficit dollars – on Thursday. Dozens of previously temporary tax breaks, such as the research and development tax credit, will now be permanent.
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The legislation includes an overhaul of the International Monetary Fund backed by Obama, and a cybersecurity bill encouraging companies to share cyber threat information with the government.
