WASHINGTON — Congress ended its chaotic year on a surprising note of bipartisan unity and productivity Friday, overwhelmingly approving a massive 2016 tax and spending package and sending it to President Obama, who promptly signed it.
Obama welcomed the massive legislation, a rare compromise product of the divided government. It includes something for nearly everyone, from parents and teachers to Big Oil and small business, from 9/11 first responders to cybersecurity hawks and more.
''There's some things in there that I don't like, but that's the nature of legislation and compromise, and I think the system worked,'' the president said at his year-end news conference at the White House before traveling with his family on their annual vacation to Hawaii. ''It was a good win.''
The legislation pairs two enormous bills: a $1.14 trillion governmentwide spending measure to fund every Cabinet agency through next September, and a $680 billion tax package extending dozens of breaks touching all sectors of the economy, making several of them permanent, and tossing the entire cost onto the deficit.
Republicans and Democrats joined to approve the spending bill on a resounding 316-to-113 vote in the House, a day after passing the tax bill. The unexpectedly large margin was a victory for new Speaker Paul Ryan, who saw a majority of his GOP lawmakers back the legislation despite complaints by frustrated conservatives whose priorities were ignored.
Not long after, the Senate voted, 65 to 33, to send the entire package to Obama, and lawmakers began rushing out the Capitol's exits to catch flights back home, with Congress adjourning until January.
On Capitol Hill, it was a harmonious conclusion to a wild 2015 that was driven largely by Tea Party lawmakers pushing for showdowns with Obama on immigration, Planned Parenthood, and the president's health care law.
They never achieved their principal goals even with the Senate under GOP control, but they forced out Ryan's predecessor, John Boehner, and nearly shut down the Homeland Security Department.
On Friday several hard-liners expressed disappointment over a year that ended with passage of a spending bill funding many of Obama's priorities while excluding their own, including curbs on Syrian refugee resettlement.
Several of the GOP presidential candidates in the Senate were among those opposing the legislation, though Senator Marco Rubio of Florida didn't show up to vote. Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky voted ''no.''
Yet few conservatives were complaining about Ryan himself, and many lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike, proudly touted the accomplishments achieved since the new speaker was sworn in, including bipartisan bills on highways and education, and a two-year budget and debt deal that paved the way for Friday's spending and tax legislation.
The Democratic leaders, Nancy Pelosi of California in the House and Harry Reid of Nevada in the Senate, complained about a provision lifting the four-decade-old ban on exporting crude oil and the legislation's failure to address Puerto Rico's fiscal woes.
But they stressed that they used 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.