Republicans keen to shift US focus to tax reform
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AMERICAN lawmakers unveiled a huge US$1 trillion-plus spending bill yesterday that would fund most government operations through to the end of September but would deny President Donald Trump money for a border wall and rejects his proposed cuts to popular domestic programs.
The 1,665-page bill agreed to on Sunday is the product of weeks of negotiations. It is tentatively scheduled for a House vote tomorrow.
The catch-all spending bill would be the first major piece of bipartisan legislation to advance during Trump’s short tenure in the White House. While losing on funding for the wall along the US-Mexico border, Trump won a US$15 billion down payment on his request to strengthen the military, though that too fell short of what he wanted.
The measure funds the remainder of the 2017 budget year, through to September 30, rejecting cuts to popular domestic programs targeted by Trump such as medical research and infrastructure grants.
Successful votes later this week will also clear away any remaining threat of a government shutdown — at least until the October 1 start of the 2018 budget year.
Trump has submitted a partial 2018 budget promising a whopping US$54 billion, 10 percent increase for the Pentagon from current levels, financed by cutting foreign aid and other nondefense programs by an equal amount.
Negotiators on the pending measure, however, rejected a smaller US$18 billion package of cuts and instead slightly increased funding for domestic programs.
Democrats were quick to praise the deal. “This agreement is a good agreement for the American people, and takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a key force in the talks.
“The bill ensures taxpayer dollars aren’t used to fund an ineffective border wall, excludes poison pill riders, and increases investments in programs that the middle class relies on, like medical research, education and infrastructure,” he added.
Some Republican conservatives, however, were wary. “I think you’re going to see conservatives have some real concerns with this legislation,” Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio said on CNN, citing domestic spending obtained by Democrats and other issues. “We told (voters) we were going to do a short-term spending bill that was going to come due at the end of April so that we could fight on these very issues, and now it looks like we’re not going to do that.”
Trump said at nearly every campaign stop last year that Mexico would pay for the 3,220-kilometer border wall, a claim Mexican leaders have repeatedly rejected. The administration sought some US$1.4 billion in American taxpayer dollars for the wall and related costs in the spending bill, but Trump later relented and said the issue could wait until September.
Trump, however, obtained US$1.5 billion for border security measures such as 5,000 additional detention beds, an upgrading in border infrastructure and technologies such as surveillance.
The measure is assured of winning bipartisan support in votes this week; the House and Senate have until midnight on Friday to pass the measure to avert a government shutdown. It is unclear, however, how much support the measure will receive from Republican conservatives such as Jordan and how warmly it will be received by the White House.
Democrats played a strong hand in the talks since their votes are needed to pass the bill, even though Republicans control both the White House and Congress. As a result, the measure doesn’t look much different than the deal that could have been struck on President Barack Obama’s watch last year.
Republicans, however, are eager to move on to other issues such as overhauling the tax code and reviving their moribund effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obama’s health care law.
“The omnibus (spending bill) is in sharp contrast to President Trump’s dangerous plans to steal billions from lifesaving research, instead increasing funding for the NIH (National Institutes of Health) by US$2 billion,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said in a statement that nonetheless fell short of endorsing the bill outright.
While the measure would peacefully end a battle over the current budget year, the upcoming cycle is sure to be even more difficult.
Republicans have yet to reveal their budget plans, and battles between Trump and Congress over annual agency budgets could grind this summer’s round of spending bills to a halt.
Among the final issues resolved was a Democratic request to help the cash-strapped government of Puerto Rico with its Medicaid burden, a top Pelosi priority.
The California Democrat and others in her party came up short of the US$500 million or so they had sought but won US$295 million for the island, more than Republicans had initially offered.
Democrats were successful in repelling many conservative policy “riders” that sought to overturn dozens of Obama-issued regulations. Such moves carry less urgency for Republicans now that Trump controls the regulatory apparatus.
The White House backed away from language to take away grants from “sanctuary cities” that do not share information about people’s immigration status with federal authorities. Trump’s request for additional immigration agents was denied and the Internal Revenue Service budget will be frozen at US$11.6 billion.
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