Lawmakers are racing to approve an enormous “omnibus” spending invoice to maintain the federal government funded forward of a Friday deadline – or sooner – as a winter storm slated for later within the week threatens to maintain lawmakers from their vacation plans.
“We should end passing this omnibus earlier than the deadline on Friday when authorities funding runs out. However we hope to do it a lot earlier than that as a result of we’re conscious {that a} Nor’easter is barreling down the East Coast on Thursday and Friday,” Majority Chief Chuck Schumer of New York mentioned from the Senate ground on Tuesday. “The earlier we move the omnibus, the higher.”
A procedural vote within the Senate on Tuesday night signaled that the $1.7 trillion spending package deal is on monitor for passage within the higher chamber in a well timed vogue, gaining the help of 21 Republicans regardless of some pushback from GOP lawmakers on the push to approve the greater than 4,000-page invoice that was unveiled within the wee hours on Tuesday.
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Even so, Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has touted the invoice as a win for Republicans, boasting that it does “precisely the reverse” of what the Biden administration requested for and represented “a powerful consequence for the Republican negotiations.”
“The administration’s authentic model for the federal finances – ravenous protection whereas shoveling money into miscellaneous home spending – was so out of whack that Democrats in Congress really joined us in rejecting it,” McConnell mentioned.
However Schumer painted the laws as a win as effectively, telling reporters that it’s “overflowing with excellent news,” citing the inclusion of help for Ukraine, reforms to the Electoral Rely Act that clarifies procedures for tabulating the presidential vote, funding for the PACT Act that bolsters veterans’ well being care and a rise in cash for pupil Pell Grant recipients, amongst various different issues.
Certainly, the laws contains various each Democratic and Republican priorities and marks the final legislative vessel of the yr to get these priorities accredited. Together with the headlining $45 billion in help for Ukraine and reforms to the Electoral Rely Act, the laws additionally contains provisions on a spread of lower-profile points, from a ban on TikTok on authorities gadgets to an overhaul of beauty rules to protections for the Maine lobster business.
The invoice doesn’t embody provisions some had pushed for in current weeks, corresponding to pandemic help that the White Home had requested, nor does it embody an growth of the kid tax credit score, laws that will additional shield pregnant employees, or Sen. Joe Manchin’s allowing reform proposal.
“It doesn’t embody all the things we needed – McConnell blocked lots of issues,” Schumer informed reporters on Tuesday.
Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah referred to as the invoice “an act of legislative barbarism” throughout a information convention Tuesday at which he was joined by a handful of different Senate Republicans who opposed the method to approving the spending invoice. However Senate Republicans extra broadly appeared supportive of the laws, and even those that opposed it mentioned there was no likelihood they might let the federal government shut down over their grievances.
On the Home aspect, the place a vote on passage of the invoice is predicted as early as Thursday, Republicans seem a lot much less pleasant to the omnibus invoice. Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy of California agreed with a gaggle of 13 Home Republicans who mentioned they might oppose the legislative priorities of lawmakers who help the omnibus invoice this week, including in a tweet that if he turns into speaker, payments from these lawmakers shall be “useless on arrival” within the Home if the omnibus is accredited.
Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California urged lawmakers to help the omnibus invoice when it reaches the Home, writing in a letter to Home Democrats on Tuesday that the laws is “pressing and obligatory.”
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