WASHINGTON – With a $410 billion catchall spending bill stalled in the Senate and a midnight deadline looming, Congress rushed through stopgap legislation Friday to keep the government running for another five days. The House passed the bill by a 328-50 vote; the Senate acted by unanimous voice vote. President Barack Obama will sign the measure later Friday.
The stopgap measure was needed because on Thursday night, Senate Republicans unexpectedly put the brakes on the sweeping measure. The so-called omnibus bill would award domestic agencies with big spending increases and it also contains about 8,000 pet projects sought by lawmakers.
House Republicans unsuccessfully tried to freeze most domestic agencies at current levels, but were easily defeated.
"Spending as usual with thousands upon thousands of earmarks and special projects is not what the American people expect from this Congress during these difficult times," said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind.
With most Republicans denouncing the bill as too costly and a few Democrats opposing it as well, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called off a key procedural vote — just one vote short of the 60 needed to send the measure to the White House.
Several Republicans who support the bill withheld their support of the procedural vote to force Reid to let other Republicans offer amendments, including ones to extend a local school voucher program in Washington, D.C., and to require lawmakers to approve their pay hikes instead of getting automatic cost-of-living raises every year. continue...
No comments:
Post a Comment