Lawmakers in the Senate are expected to pass a bipartisan two-year budget deal ahead of a midnight government shutdown deadline when it comes to a vote Thursday evening, leaving the ball in the House’s court.
The deal, negotiated by Senate leaders over several weeks, raises budget caps set in 2011 by the Budget Control Act to allow for massive boosts in defense and nondefense spending, totaling nearly $300 billion. It also includes $89 billion in disaster relief, $20 billion for infrastructure projects, $6 billion to respond to the opioid crisis, four additional years of funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a two-year reauthorization of community health centers, and a suspension of the debt limit for a year.
The package would also keep the government funded for six weeks to give appropriators enough time to write spending bills for the rest of the year.
The bill—652 pages of legislative text written behind closed doors—became available to members of Congress on Wednesday at midnight, just 24 hours before a government shutdown deadline. (Cue the classic Schoolhouse Rock song.)
Despite a few dissenters in the Senate, it is expected to pass with bipartisan support.
“The budget deal is a win for the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday afternoon. After passage in the Senate, the deal will move to the House for approval.
Its odds in the House are more challenging, where fiscal hawks have decried the deal for ballooning the deficit. And some Democrats, despite winning a number of key concessions in the agreement, are frustrated because it does not include a replacement for the soon-to-expire Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which protects nearly 700,000 unauthorized immigrants who were brought to the United States as children from deportation. Congress has until March 5 to work out a DACA solution, whether by passing protections for the individuals affected, or by delaying the deadline until members can come to an agreement.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said during a press conference Thursday morning that she would not be voting in favor of the deal, in part because House Speaker Paul Ryan has not committed to an open amendment process when the House turns to the immigration debate. She spent eight8 hours talking on the House floor to protest the situation Wednesday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has given Senate Democrats a similar promise, reiterating that he will ensure a “level playing field” for all sides of the immigration debate when the chamber takes up the issue next week.
Still, Pelosi indicated she wouldn’t be formally whipping her members against the bill Thursday morning. But leadership is offering some tepid guidance, perhaps at the risk of causing confusion ahead of the vote. Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer sent out an email Thursday afternoon condemning the deal.
“Unlike in the Senate, there is no agreement that the House will even consider legislation to protect DREAMers,” the email read. “By leaving this vital issue unresolved, this package leaves DREAMers isolated, without a path to resolution in the House.”
And Pelosi sent out an email listing the reasons she was opposed to the bill a few hours later, but she left noticeable breathing room for members of her conference to support it. Democratic votes will be necessary to get the package through the chamber and to the president’s desk.
The disagreement comes just three weeks after a brief government shutdown over the same immigration debate in late January. Senate leaders may cut it close with an evening vote, as Sen. Rand Paul is demanding a vote on an amendment he has offered before he will go along with a unanimous consent deal to move the vote to an earlier time. Without winning unanimous consent in the Senate, the vote would occur early Friday morning—an hour after the government shutdown deadline.
As of Thursday afternoon, a Senate vote had not been scheduled.
