Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday he’ll support the 2016 omnibus spending and tax cut package, signaling Democrats won’t be an impediment to congressional passage as early as this week.
Reid, D-Nev., said the $1.1 trillion spending bill “creates and saves middle class jobs, protects the environment, and invests in renewable energy sources,” adding that the deal represents “a good compromise” between the two parties.
The House is scheduled to take up the $800 billion tax cut package on Thursday and the spending bill on Friday. The GOP-led Senate is then expected to combine the two measures and consider them in one bill, which will require Democratic support to prevent a filibuster.
Reid said he’ll back it, citing provisions in the deal that are big wins for Democrats, including the extension of tax credits for wind and solar energy, which he said will help protect and create jobs in the clean energy sector.
Reid downplayed the provision lifting the crude oil export ban, saying the wind and solar tax credits will more than offset the carbon emissions created by the oil.
Reid noted Democrats “were able to beat back” Republican riders that Democrats opposed, including a provision to halt the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the United States.
The Senate has yet to schedule a vote on the package. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he hoped for a vote by Thursday.
The White House said it would also support the deal, and said that in terms of policy, it got what it wanted in the omnibus spending package Congress is set to vote on later this week.
Throughout budget talks, the White House said it would not accept policy riders advanced by Republicans. Ticking off a host of issues congressional Republicans attempted to address through the package, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the Obama administration rebuffed their efforts.
“We did succeed in fighting off those efforts,” to include provisions relating to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law, Planned Parenthood, the Affordable Care Act, environmental regulations and plans to resettle Syrian refugees in the U.S., Earnest said.
“We succeeded,” he said.
In terms of GOP efforts to dismantle newly issued environmental rules on everything ranging from the international climate agreement reached in Paris over the weekend to coal-fired power plants, Earnest said they failed.
“When you look at the entire package, I think the public can feel good about” how it jives with Obama’s efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions and clean up American waterways, Earnest said.
Nicole Duran contributed
