Senate to act by week's end

 

By Jim Myers

 

Washington — The U.S. House easily passed a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill Wednesday to keep the federal government funded for the rest of the fiscal year, avoid threats of another shutdown and provide at least partial relief from the unpopular across-the-board budget cuts put in place two years ago.

 

Approved by a vote of 359-67, the compromise bill now goes to the Senate, which faces a Saturday deadline for action.

 

Wisconsin's delegation split 5-3 with Republicans Paul Ryan and Sean Duffy joined by Democrats Gwen Moore, Mark Pocan and Ron Kind in voting yes; Republicans Jim Sensenbrenner, Tom Petri and Reid Ribble voted no.

 

The bill tracks with the two-year budget agreement put together last month by Wisconsin Republican Rep. Paul Ryan as chairman of the House Budget Committee and Washington Democrat Patty Murray, his counterpart in the Senate.

 

Like the Ryan-Murray product, the spending bill drew reserved support from both sides of aisle with members making it clear that the bill fell short of their own priorities.

 

Moore was one of those. "Our government cannot continue to operate from one manufactured crisis to the next," she said in a statement. "Although the omnibus does not restore pre-sequester funding for every program, it offers significant relief to many of our domestic investments that were compromised when the across-the-board spending cuts went into effect."

 

Moore said the American people have had enough of congressional dysfunction and gridlock. "I join them in this sentiment," she said.

 

Duffy said his vote puts Wisconsin first by allowing the state's job creators to plan for the year ahead, responsibly drawing down spending and providing relief to many programs that had to cut back in recent years. He singled out provisions that will benefit his congressional district, including restoring full funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. Last year's spending bill, he said, provided only $60 million for that program while the new proposal boosts that to $300 million.

 

Duffy said the program is important for Wisconsin and the Great Lakes. With funding for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund increased under the bill from $838 million to $1 billion, he said, dredging operations in the Great Lakes and at ports such as Superior and Duluth now will be funded.

 

He said a $28.5 million increase in funding for the National Park Service will allow every park, including the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore and the St. Croix Scenic Riverway, to remain open throughout the fiscal year without the threat of closure or employee furloughs.

 

In his remarks during floor debate, Rep. Harold Rogers (R-Ky.), the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and a top author of the bill, said his panel reached a bipartisan compromise despite its partisan differences.

 

Rogers said the bill, which consolidates a dozen appropriations bills, realigns budget priorities and continues a four-year trend of spending cuts. That has not happened since the Korean War, he said.

 

Despite its bipartisan approach, Rogers assured his fellow Republicans that the bill preserves a number of their priorities, including no new funding for President Barack Obama's signature health care law, known as Obamacare.

 

Another major reason that many Republicans had to support the bill was the relief that it provided the nation's military from the budget cuts that were included as part of the so-called sequestration put in place two years to put pressure lawmakers on fiscal matters.

 

Rogers also emphasized that the bill includes a partial fix on military pensions by ensuring working-age retirees who were medically retired and their survivors will continue to receive their full annual cost-of-living adjustments. That fix addresses perhaps the most controversial provision included in the Ryan-Murray agreement, which calls for all military retirees under the age of 62 to receive 1% less in their COLAs.

 

Rogers said the relief provided in his spending bill would affect 630,000 Americans.

 

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the Appropriations Committee, expressed support for the spending bill even while reminding her colleagues the fiscal year began Oct. 1. "Better late than never," she said. She singled out provisions that provide investments in job creation, education and infrastructure but said the measure still fell short in areas such as reinstating jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed.

 

Federal employees will not face furloughs during this fiscal year, Lowey said.

 

The Senate is expected to take up the spending bill as quickly as rules allow with a vote before a temporary funding measure, which passed that chamber earlier in the day, expires on Saturday.

 

 

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