The White House on Thursday said President Obama would sign a spending bill expected to narrowly pass the Republican-led House, which would avert a government shutdown and set up a fight over illegal immigration in early 2015.
“The president supports the passage of this compromise proposal,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest, just after a procedural vote in which the House advanced the measure 214-212.
A final vote in the lower chamber is scheduled for later Thursday.
Obama’s endorsement could pressure Democrats to go along with the legislation, as lawmakers scramble to get the bill through the House.
“It’s clear we have a difference of opinion here,” Earnest said when told that House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., would oppose the bill.
In recent days, Democrats have fumed about provisions in the bill that chip away at campaign-finance rules and roll back parts of the Dodd-Frank Act.
Earnest said Obama was opposed to some ideological riders in the bill but that he preferred the “significant benefit associated with Congress passing a budget without the threat of a shutdown.”
The legislation funds most of the government for the remainder of the fiscal year. However, the Department of Homeland Security would receive funding through February, giving Republicans another opportunity to confront Obama on his executive action to protect up to 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.
