House Republicans are on course to pass a $1.1 trillion government spending package on Thursday, but they’ll need the support of dozens of Democrats to overcome conservative GOP resistance.
That’s the verdict from a closed-door meeting with the GOP conference that took place just hours after the House Appropriations Committee introduced the more than 1,600 page proposal late Tuesday. The bill funds most of the government through 2015, fencing off Homeland Security spending in a separate bill that expires on Feb. 27.
Republican leaders hoped the hybrid approach would appease conservatives who want to defund an Obama administration directive that will curb deportations and provide work permits and federal benefits for millions of people now living here illegally.
But as the GOP’s more conservative lawmakers streamed from the meeting, they pledged to vote “no” because the legislation lacks a provision to block Obama’s action now.
“I’m not one for half-hearted measures,” Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., said. “And I’m certainly not one for no measure at all.”
By some estimates, up to 60 Republicans will vote against the spending bills, but there is no imminent threat the legislation will fail because the GOP expects nearly 100 Democrats to vote for the bill.
The legislation was negotiated closely with Senate Democrats, who control the majority in the upper chamber.
”I look forward to it passing with bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate in coming days,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the meeting.
Republicans who plan to vote for the legislation say they can back it because it lowers spending levels and provides some limitations and spending cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Internal Revenue Service.
“Let’s claim those victories and move forward,” Rep. Tom Reed, R-N.Y., said. “We’re moving the ball in the right direction.”
But conservatives are not giving up.
They plan to attempt to amend the bill with a provision that would block Obama’s executive action.
Rep. Matt Salmon, R-Ariz., said the provision has 55 GOP sponsors, but he is not hopeful the GOP leadership will put it on the House floor for a vote.
“If it went to the floor, it would pass, and they don’t want that to happen,” Salmon said.
Republican leaders in both chambers are eager to avoid spending gridlock that could shutter the federal government, and Democrats say they won’t allow legislation that attempts to curb Obama’s deportation directive.
The short-term Homeland Security funding measure, House GOP leaders said Wednesday, simply postpones their efforts to stop President Obama until Republicans take over the Senate in January.
“This sets up a direct challenge to the president’s unilateral action on immigration when there are new majorities in both chambers of Congress,” Boehner said.
The legislation includes several policy riders, including a provision to lift campaign contribution limits and another blocking the legalization of recreational marijuana in the District of Columbia.
Republican leaders are also fielding complaints from their rank-and-file and other critics who say the bill is being rushed to the House floor for a vote, allowing lawmakers or the public little time to review it.
Boehner said legislators moved as quickly as they could to assemble an end-of-the-year bill that incorporates items that lawmakers want passed before the 113th Congress adjourns.
“It took this long to put this bill together,” Boehner said. “When you look at the number of agreements that had to be struck on funding, on riders … I wish it had been done last week, but it wasn’t.”
