House Speaker Paul Ryan defended a huge spending and tax package that was finalized late Tuesday night, and told rank-and-file Republicans that members would vote Friday on the $1.1 trillion spending bill, after considering a massive tax cut bill that most Democrats are expected to oppose.
The legislative package comes after weeks of bipartisan negotiations that yielded a number of “gets” for both parties, Ryan said, including language that makes permanent a number of small business tax cuts.
“This is the result of a bipartisan and bicameral compromise,” Ryan told reporters Wednesday. “Everyone can point to something that gives them a reason to be in favor of both of these bills.”
Republican leaders unveiled the deal to lawmakers late Tuesday and met with them again on Wednesday morning, telling them that while the party did not get everything it wanted, it offers a fresh start under Ryan, who was elected speaker in October.
For Republicans, the package includes lifting a decades-old ban on exporting U.S crude oil and permanent tax cuts for business research and development. For Democrats, the wins included a two-year, $80 billion increase in spending over budgetary caps and the elimination of policy riders they abhorred, including rollbacks of EPA regulations and a halt to President Obama’s Syrian and Iraqi refugee resettlement plan.
The tradeoffs also included an unspoken and unusual agreement between Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. According to Ryan, Reid has promised that Democrats will not block the GOP’s 2017 spending measures from Senate floor debate, as the party did this year.
“Harry promised that he wouldn’t filibuster bills, bringing them to the floor,” said Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, a House appropriator. “To me, that’s huge. Our biggest problem this year is we passed bills on the floor and there is nothing to conference with in the Senate.”
Despite wins for Republicans, many party lawmakers say that while they plan to support the tax cut bill, they may not vote for the spending bill.
Among those least likely to vote for the spending bill are the conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus, who were seeking policy riders addressing Syrian refugees and ending taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Neither of those provisions made it into the bill.
“My guess is Republicans will pass the tax extenders and we’ll have a strong majority against the omnibus package,” Rep. Tim Huelskamp, R-Kan. told the Washington Examiner. “It’s just too big and there is not much in there that we can go home and talk about.”
Republican leadership aides say there is a tentative understanding that Democrats will back the omnibus, providing the votes needed to pass it.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said early Wednesday her caucus is reviewing the package and she made no commitment for or against the spending bill. But Pelosi said the tax package is too costly.
“Republicans’ tax extender bill provides hundreds of billions of dollars in special interest tax breaks that are permanent and unpaid for,” Pelosi said. “These massive giveaways to the special interests and big corporations are deeply destructive to our future.”
Ryan said despite evident lawmaker opposition to both bills, he expects the pair of measures to pass with bipartisan support, and that the government will remain funded without a pause that could lead to a government shutdown.
“I have no reason to believe we are going to have a shutdown,” Ryan said.
To make that come true, both the House and Senate are expected to pass another short-term continuing resolution, one that lasts through Dec. 22. Current funding for the federal government expires at the end of today.
