WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders reached a deal Tuesday on a more than $1 trillion spending package that would fund most of the federal government through the current fiscal year.
But because negotiations on the package dragged over policy details, House lawmakers also prepared to move on a short-term spending measure that would avert a government shutdown if they cannot pass the larger bill by Thursday, when current funding expires.
Even with nettlesome last-minute issues, leaders in both parties expressed confidence that they would be able to keep the government running. Lawmakers battled behind the scenes over dozens of additional policy provisions ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency’s jurisdiction over some bodies of water to the District of Columbia’s marijuana laws to matters of campaign finance.
The big spending package, which congressional leaders had hoped to have ready on Monday, did not come until Tuesday evening. The final legislation would largely keep domestic funding at current levels, while providing more money to fight various crises abroad.
The House is expected to vote on the package on Thursday, and the short-term measure would help provide the Senate a margin of error for passing the legislation the House sends over before breaking for the winter recess.
The spending bill would fund nearly all of the federal government through September 2015, except for the Department of Homeland Security, which it would fund only through February, in retaliation for President Obama’s unilateral action to defer the deportation of as many as 5 million unauthorized immigrants. Congressional Republicans plan to take up funding for the agency — which has primary responsibility for carrying out the president’s immigration directive — early next year, when they will control both chambers of Congress and believe they will have more leverage.
The rush Tuesday to post the legislation underscored the 113th Congress’ dubious record as one of the least productive in modern history — governing by deadlines and cliffs of their own making, and struggling to pass even some of the most pro forma pieces of legislation.
“There is something about legislative institutions that don’t function until there is a hard deadline and usually around here that hard deadline is Christmas Day,” said Senator John Thune of South Dakota, a member of the Republican leadership. “Things don’t get done until there’s a crisis, and that crisis is upon us.”
Thune added that while he did not expect a government shutdown, Congress had again let a deadline slip: “Does it get done by Thursday night?” he asked, referring to the original target for passage. “It’s looking increasingly bleak for that to happen, but I think it gets done.”
The spending bill is geared toward combating threats from afar, with roughly $5.4 billion in emergency funds to fight Ebola in West Africa; roughly $64 billion for wars and other overseas operations; and more than half of the overall package going to military spending.
The final deal amounted to what one Democratic aide called a “split decision” likely to leave both sides unhappy.
For instance, the bill would nullify the District of Columbia’s referendum to legalize marijuana, but it would allow Washington to decriminalize the drug, meaning possession of small amounts will no longer be punished. Environmental regulations on some waterways were nullified for the US Army Corps of Engineers, but the EPA would not be limited in its ability to regulate new bodies of water under the Clean Water Act.
Democrats fought off Republican efforts to scuttle first lady Michelle Obama’s tough rules on nutritional content of school lunches, but Republicans secured some flexibility on sodium levels and the use of whole grains. Schools will be able to claim a hardship waiver if they can show procuring whole grains would be too expensive or difficult.
Negotiators also decided to remove a separate bill to extend the federal terrorism risk insurance backstop passed first in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Instead, House Republicans plan to vote on a compromise version struck by Representative Jeb Hensarling, Republican of Texas, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, and Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. That deal would raise the threshold of terrorism damage after which federal aid kicks in to $200 million from $100 million.
However, Republicans hope to attach a provision that would make farmers, ranchers, manufacturers, and small businesses that use financial instruments to hedge risk exempt from regulations under Dodd-Frank.