No US shutdown as Congress passes stop-gap spending bill

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The US government will not face a holiday season shutdown after Congress passed a spending bill just one day before federal funding was due to expire.

The bill, passed in the House of Representatives and Senate by votes of 231-188 and 66-32 respectively on Thursday, provides just enough money to keep agencies operating until January 19. Lawmakers will now begin a holiday recess that ends on January 3.

Short-term fix

When Congress returns, lawmakers will immediately have to get back to work on appropriating more money for a fiscal year that already will be three months old. They will try to pass an "omnibus" spending bill to fund the government from January 19 through September 30.

Negotiators have been struggling for months over thorny issues such as the amount of defense-spending increases versus increases for other domestic programs, including medical research, opioid treatment and "anti-terrorism" activities.

US House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) walks on Capitol Hill in Washington, US after the House vote on the continuing resolution to avoid government shutdown, December 21, 2017. /Reuters Photo

Fiscal hawks, meanwhile, are angry that Congress is again moving to bust through spending caps that had been designed to tamp down mounting federal debt.

But some of those same lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Congress earlier in the week voted for a sweeping tax bill that will add 1.5 trillion US dollars over the next 10 years to a national debt that already stands at 20 trillion US dollars.

What about the Dreamers?

With the clock ticking toward a midnight deadline on Friday when government funding would run out, Democrats in the House and Senate made a strong pitch for including protections for young immigrants who entered the country illegally as children, popularly known as "Dreamers."

In the end, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and immigration advocacy groups failed. But nearly all of the House's 193 Democrats and 29 of the Senate's 46 Democrats voted no, in part to protest the lack of action on the immigration measure.

Shortly before the House and Senate votes, Democratic Representative Luis Gutierrez told reporters, "We're really tired of tomorrow," referring to years of failed attempts in Congress to protect Dreamers from deportation, allow them to legally work in the United States and get on a path to citizenship.

They will resume their fight in January, aiming to win on the next spending bill or a separate measure. Trump has eliminated Obama-era temporary protections for Dreamers, but has asked Congress to come up with a permanent solution by March.

In the meantime, about 122 Dreamers a day are becoming vulnerable to deportation while Congress bickers.

More money for US defense

The temporary spending bill did, however, give Trump a modest increase of 4.7 billion US dollars for the Department of Defense to be used for missile defense and ship repair.

The bill includes 2.85 billion US dollars to fund the Children's Health Insurance Program through March and funding for community health centers and the Indian Health Service.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pauses as he speaks about the Children's Health Insurance Program at a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, December 21, 2017. /Reuters Photo

The plan also would extend the National Security Agency's expiring Internet surveillance program, known as Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, through January 19.

Other provisions address funding for veterans, the Coast Guard and flood insurance. Most government programs would be temporarily extended until January 19 at fiscal 2017 levels.

Also on Thursday, the Senate put the brakes on another bill that passed the House, which would provide 81 billion US dollars in new disaster aid to help Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands and several states hit by this year's hurricanes or wildfires.

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Source(s): Reuters