House agrees on $1.1 trillion spending bill to avoid government shutdown
House agrees on $1.1 trillion spending bill to avoid government shutdown
Published December 09, 2014
FoxNews.com
Key House lawmakers agreed on terms of a $1.1 trillion spending bill Tuesday night in a race against the clock to avoid a partial government shutdown, Fox News has learned.
The GOP-led House Appropriations Committee was expected to release the bill later in the evening.
The government technically runs out of money at midnight Thursday.
The bill next will go to the chamber’s Rules committee to be prepared for debate and a full House vote by perhaps Thursday morning or afternoon, with the Senate conceivably tackling the bill before the fast-approaching deadline.
The bill is expected to finance the day-to-day operations of every Cabinet department, provide more than $5 billion of President Obama's $6.2 billion request to combat Ebola at home and abroad, and provide more than $70 billion to conduct overseas military operations, including funds to fight Islamic State extremists
However, it's unclear whether the bill will put limits on Department of Homeland Security spending, in response to the president's recent executive action that could delay deportation of as many as 5 million illegal immigrants.
Strong opposition to the House plan from the Republicans’ conservative caucus could force GOP chamber leaders to rely on Democratic votes to avert the government shutdown.
House Speaker John Boehner can afford to lose only 17 caucus votes before he must turn to support from House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi
Pelosi, D-Calif., has said her party would be willing to help but has signaled she may make some demands.
Among those expected to vote against the bill is South Carolina GOP Rep. Mike Mulvaney.
“I don’t think we've proven to people who just re-elected us that we’re doing everything that we can,” he told FoxNews.com on Tuesday before the bill was released. “Now we’re going to fund the emperor (President Obama) without putting up a fight? That’s hard for me to swallow.”
One the Senate side, conservatives such as Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; Mike Lee, R-Utah; and Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., could create problems in passing the bill.
They have pushed for an aggressive attack plan over Obama's immigration actions. If any chooses to filibuster, it could draw out the process, potentially pushing debate into the weekend -- requiring Congress to either pass a stopgap funding bill or risk at least a short partial shutdown.
Senate Republican aides said Monday that they didn’t expect their bosses to fight in a way that runs past the deadline and risks a partial shutdown.
They suggest that the timing, with the Senate not expected to take a crack at the bill until Thursday or later, makes it difficult to launch a major fight.
"It cuts against us," one Republican Senate aide said. "Leadership has played its hand very well."
Another top aide for a conservative senator said the battle comes down to how much the outside groups want to engage and “there's not a lot we can do."
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