Dec 18 The U.S. Senate passed sweeping fiscal legislation on Friday averting a government shutdown, locking in billions of dollars of tax breaks and scrapping a 40-year-old ban on the export of U.S. oil. “I think it’s legislation worth supporting”.
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But they boasted of using their leverage, veto threats from Obama and the GOP’s craving for the oil export ban to extract numerous concessions from Republicans, including five-year extensions of solar and wind tax credits, a top goal for Reid. Together, the two bills would pare taxes by $680 billion over 10 years. A number of them would be made permanent, including those for business research and development, small business expenses, individual deductions for state and local sales taxes, and financing rules for multinational corporations.
Other extended tax cuts include breaks for some teachers, commuters, timber investors, electric vehicle owners and makers of hard cider drinks.
The spending bill not only prevents a government shutdown until next fall, but it also contains a few policy provisions. The measure would make it easier for people to get information from the IRS about their cases and for groups to appeal agency decisions against them.
Whip teams from both parties worked late Thursday evening to ensure the bill would get the votes needed to pass the lower chamber.
“They had discretionary spending under control but we just blew through those”, he said. “We are not doing anything for yet another year to take the debt burden off our kids and grandkids”, Republican Representative John Fleming of Louisiana said Thursday. The White House opposed the rollbacks, but Republicans and many Democrats savored them.
While Republicans voted almost in lockstep for the tax measure, it split Democrats, who opposed it by 106-77.
“This bill lays the groundwork for historic reforms that will fix our broken tax code”, said House Speaker Paul Ryan, the former Ways and Means chairman. Ryan has emphasized this week that the spending bill is the product of a process he inherited from Boehner and that he’ll pursue a different strategy next year. Democrats had wanted the oil provisions to be added to the tax proposal instead. Marco Rubio of Florida didn’t show up to vote. House Minority Leader Frank Dermody, D-Allegheny, said it was being written by his staff Thursday night.
The House voted 316-113 to pass the spending portion of the package on Friday, when it won support from Republicans by a 150-95 margin.
Oil producers, including Continental Resources Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and ConocoPhillips, have been pressing for an end to decades of restrictions on exports of most raw, unprocessed crude oil imposed at a time of shortages in the U.S. Ninety-five Republicans voted against the measure.
The legislation does, however, incorporate a bipartisan push to limit certain travel privileges granted to citizens of 38 friendly foreign countries that are allowed to enter the US without obtaining a visa.
The measure would benefit industries including health care, broadcasting and meat processing, increase funding for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and boost money for child hunger programs. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., scheduled the votes for Friday anyway. A tax on medical devices would be suspended for two years, a levy on health insurers would stop for a year and, in a victory for unions, a tax on higher-cost insurance policies would be postponed two years until 2020.
Not everyone was on board.
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“I will not empower Big Oil to upend so many victories for hard-working American families”, she wrote to Democratic lawmakers.
