Ryan promised a fresh start for the House as the new Speaker.
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Senators later easily passed the measure and sent it to President Barack Obama who was expected to sign it before leaving on vacation.
What is controversial and missing from the budget is any language that would bar funding for President Obama’s Syrian Refugee Resettlement program, which may lead some Republicans to vote against the bill on Friday. But the speaker argued that in divided government, there was a limit to what Democrats could accept and said it contained “some big wins for the country, whether it’s lifting the oil export ban, increasing military spending or renewing health care for the 9/11 first responders”.
The US Senate has passed sweeping fiscal legislation averting a government shutdown, locking in billions of dollars of tax breaks and scrapping a 40-year-old ban on the export of US oil.
Over the past few years, the budget has become a place of bitter fighting between Democrats and Republicans, becoming a tool to threaten a government shutdown if certain items are not included or excluded. A number of conservative members of the Republican majority opposed the measure because they said it spends too much money.
Republicans were evenly split with 27 of them voting in favour and 26 against the bill.
Sen. Bernard Sanders, Vermont independent vying with Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination, voted “no”.
Friday’s votes promise to finish up a surprisingly productive, bipartisan burst of late-session legislation in a divided Congress.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) also once again demonstrated her ability to deliver Democratic votes when needed and in recent days she has emphasized that despite what her caucus doesn’t like about the bill, it contains many policies eagerly sought by Democrats.
The spending measure awards increases of about 6 percent, on average, above tight spending caps that were a relic of a 2011 budget and debt deal, and were opposed by both GOP defense hawks and Democrats seeking boosts in domestic spending.
House Speaker Paul Ryan called the deal a bipartisan success – but also said he didn’t have much leeway in making the legislation more conservative-friendly or giving lawmakers more time to chew it over.
Some Democrats criticized the tax cuts, saying they give more aid to large corporations and wealthy business owners than to working families. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) missed the vote.
“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 largesse. “I think it’s a good working relationship”, Obama told a year-end press conference. The Republicans claimed a major victory with a lifted ban on oil exportation from the U.S.
The House passed a $1.1 trillion spending measure that includes a change to Obamacare and keeps the government running through September 2016.
Among other policy shifts, the bill would delay contentious pieces of the 2010 health law, by suspending the excise tax on medical devices for 2016 and 2017 and delaying for two years the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost employer-sponsored health insurance.
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For example, in exchange for Democrats’ support for lifting ban on the crude oil exports, Republicans agreed to extend wind and solar tax credits and authorize a conservation fund for three years.
