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House faces close vote on $1.01 trillion spending bill House faces close vote on $1.01 trillion spending bill
(about 2 hours later)
Just hours before a possible government shutdown, House leaders were struggling to shore up support for a sweeping bill to fund most of the federal government, change campaign finance laws and make it harder for the District of Columbia to legalize marijuana. Congress plunged itself into another standoff Thursday night as a last-minute Democratic revolt against a spending package put the government on the brink of another shutdown.
The White House said President Obama supports the bill and would sign it, but also criticized lawmakers for using the 1,603-page bill to tweak financial regulations and campaign donation limits. With government funding expiring at midnight, House Republicans were poised to settle for a stopgap bill of almost three months and send it to the Senate for passage, where it was likely to pass and avert the second shutdown of the Obama administration.
Uncertainty about the bill developed after a last-minute Democratic revolt against a spending package they helped negotiate. In a notable public break with the White House, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) used a floor speech to blast Obama and Republicans for backing the bill. She announced that she vote no on the bill, raising concerns that the measure rolls back regulations on risky Wall Street trading and repeals key provisions of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory rules. The swift collapse of support for the sweeping $1.01 trillion spending bill was evident by midday Thursday, when every Democrat present in the chamber voted against a procedural motion to begin formal debate. In a dramatic standoff, GOP leaders scrambled to find just enough votes to allow debate to begin.
The White House followed by quickly announcing President Obama’s support for the legislation, even as it criticized lawmakers for using the 1,603-page bill to weaken some Wall Street regulations and loosen campaign donation limits.
But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) then dealt a stunning public rebuke to Obama, using a floor speech to announce her opposition. She said that Democrats were “being blackmailed” by Republicans to pass the measure with just hours before a shutdown.
“I’m enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this. That would be the only reason I think they would say they would sign such a bill,” she said.“I’m enormously disappointed that the White House feels that the only way they can get a bill is to go along with this. That would be the only reason I think they would say they would sign such a bill,” she said.
Pelosi warned that Democrats were “being blackmailed” by Republicans to pass the bill with just hours until a possible shutdown. Pelosi’s outrage was shared by a majority of her caucus also infuriated by several policy changes tucked inside the omnibus agreement released late Tuesday.
A vote on the $1.01 trillion package was abruptly postponed moments later. Earlier, the bill had barely survived a procedural vote when all Democrats present and roughly a dozen Republicans voted against the rule setting up debate. Rank-and-file Democrats reviewing the legislation had lashed out Wednesday at language in the bill undoing a signature piece of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul and allowing banks to more easily trade the investments known as derivatives. The financial overhaul enacted in 2010 ranks among the biggest domestic achievements of the Obama presidency and the formerly Democratic-controlled Congress.
In a scramble to shore up support, senior Democratic and GOP aides said the president, his staff and Democratic senators were making calls to House Democrats. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was dispatched to Capitol Hill to lobby for the bill in a hastily-arranged meeting, and House Democrats planned to huddle and determine how to proceed in the next few hours. Vice President Joseph Biden was phoning Democratic legislators as well. Another controversial provision in the spending bill would permit a wealthy couple to give three times the current donation limits to the national political parties.
Government funding expires at midnight Thursday and the House is also expected to approve a short-term extension of current funding to give the Senate — with its arcane procedural rules — a few more days to work on the bill. Republicans were also poised to pass a three-month stopgap bill to keep the government open if the spending legislation didn’t win enough Democratic votes, making another shutdown unlikely despite the last-minute showdown. At a closed-door leadership meeting Thursday morning, Pelosi and her team said they would try again to extract concessions from House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). Exiting the meeting, Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) said Pelosi was telling members to “keep your powder dry.” Summarizing the tug felt by many Democrats, the 84-year-old lawmaker said that he didn’t like the bill, “but I absolutely don’t like shutting down the government.”
Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.), a big supporter of the spending bill, was visibly frustrated that his colleagues were mulling a temporary continuing resolution for 90 days, since Republicans will control all of Congress when it expires. Pelosi and Boehner spoke twice by telephone during the day, but Pelosi’s attempts to make last-minute changes were rebuffed, according to aides to both leaders.
 He said it would be a "travesty" if Democrats fail to pass the bipartisan spending bill. In a scramble to shore up support, Obama, Vice President Biden and other administration officials, including Jeffrey Zients, chairman of Obama’s National Economic Council, began phoning wavering Democrats. Some lawmakers said they also received calls from Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee, including its chairwoman, Barbara A. Mikulski (D-Md.), and Sen. Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.).
Exiting House Speaker John A. Boehner’s office just as House Democrats were scheduled to huddle separately, Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) said Republicans were waiting on their colleagues across the aisle before making their next move. White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was dispatched to the basement of the U.S. Capitol to plea for support in person. Asked about the Wall Street and campaign finance provisions in the bill, McDonough told the Democrats, “We learned about these [two] provisions when you did,” according to aides in the room.
“We want to see to how the Dems come out of their caucus. It’s going to take a while,” he said. Entering the meeting, Pelosi rebuffed suggestions that Democrats would be responsible for another spending impasse. “We’re not going to shut down the government,” she told reporters.
Pittenger said Republicans still intend to pass the bill without alterations. Rep. Steve Israel (D-N.Y.), a close Pelosi ally, said that McDonough had tried to assuage Democratic concerns by arguing that the economy needs the “certainty” and “consistency” of a one-year bill. But he said many rank-and-file members vocally expressed their concerns with the bill.
“I hope we don’t have to change anything to it,” said the congressman. “We’ve got to draw a line in the sand,” he said, adding he was open to passing a stopgap bill instead.
“Let’s go govern,” he concluded. “I think anything would be preferable” to the bill in its current form, he said.
Boehner (R-Ohio) predicted that the bill would pass with bipartisan support. Over the past two years of GOP control, minority Democrats have usually waited, wondering how intra-party squabbles might unfold. But in a rare political role reversal, Republicans spent most of Thursday on the sidelines.
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was confident of passage as well. Exiting Boehner’s office just as House Democrats began meeting Thursday night, Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) said Republicans still intended to pass the bill despite Democratic disagreements.
“We’re getting out of here today. You’re going to miss me,” he told reporters as he walked into Boehner’s office Thursday morning. “I hope we don’t have to change anything to it,” he said, adding later: “Let’s go govern.”
Republican support appeared to be building throughout the day despite concerns that the legislation won’t go far enough in punishing Obama for using his executive authority to change immigration policy. Republican support appeared to grow throughout the day despite the objections of dozens of conservatives that the legislation would not punish Obama hard enough for using his executive authority to change immigration policy.
Rep. Bill Flores (R-Tex.), the incoming chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, predicted that at least one-third of his group’s 170-plus members would vote no. He said he would likely vote no because “my constituents are telling me that they’re against it. I think that it would be hard to totally stop the president’s unlawful amnesty action, but I think we could try a little bit harder to fix it.” Rep. Bill Flores (R-Tex.), the incoming chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, predicted that at least one-third of his group’s 170-plus members would vote no. He said he would be against the bill because “my constituents are telling me that they’re against it. I think that it would be hard to totally stop the president’s unlawful amnesty action, but I think we could try a little bit harder to fix it.”
House Democratic aides have privately warned in recent days about widespread opposition to the spending plan amid concerns over big changes to campaign spending laws and Wall Street regulations. A wave of Democratic “no” votes would be a victory for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a popular figure on the left. Warren used a Senate floor speech Wednesday to warn that the bill sharply increases the influence of wealthy campaign donors, saying the measure reflected “the worst of government for the rich and powerful.” The wave of Democratic opposition in the House appeared backed in part by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a popular figure on the left who voiced concern on Wednesday that the bill would sharply increase the influence of wealthy campaign donors. She said the bill reflected “the worst of government for the rich and powerful.”
At a closed-door leadership meeting Thursday morning, Pelosi and her team called for a wait-and-see approach as they tried one more time to get Boehner to change the bill, which would undo a pillar of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul by freeing banks to more readily trade the exotic investments known as derivatives. The legislation ranks among the administration’s biggest domestic achievements. Another controversial provision would permit a wealthy couple to give as much as $3.1 million to political parties, three times the current limit.. Others, such as Sen. Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), who is traveling to Iowa on Monday as he mulls a 2016 presidential bid, said that he would vote against the bill. While it includes increased funding for veterans’ health care — one of Sanders’s top priorities — he called the changes in Wall Street regulations “totally absurd.”
“Right now they’re just saying keep your powder dry,” Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-N.Y.) said as he emerged from the meeting. He said that he doesn’t like the bill, “but I absolutely don’t like shutting down the government.”
Republican aides said that Pelosi’s requests already had been rebuffed — and that 70 Democrats had already voted once before to relax the Wall Street regulations included in the spending bill.
The campaign finance and Wall Street provisions, “like the entire bill, were the result of a bipartisan, bicameral process,” Michael Steel, a Boehner spokesman, said in an e-mail. “If Rep. Pelosi doesn’t think her negotiators did a good job, she should discuss it with them – but sour grapes doesn’t mean she gets to rewrite the deal after the fact.”
In the Senate, members of both parties have expressed serious objections to the plan, raising the specter that some might use procedural delays to block or slow the legislation.
On Wednesday, Warren repeatedly declined to say whether she would block or slow the spending bill. Conservatives, including Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), have also raised concerns but haven’t said what they might do to derail the bill.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is traveling to Iowa on Monday as he mulls a 2016 presidential bid, said Thursday that he would vote against the bill. While it includes increased funding for veterans’ health care — one of Sanders’s top priorities — he called the changes in Wall Street regulations “totally absurd.”
“It’s more austerity for working people,” he said. “It’s a budget that does not reflect the needs of the working families of this country.”“It’s more austerity for working people,” he said. “It’s a budget that does not reflect the needs of the working families of this country.”
Moderate House Democrats eager to approve the spending bill faulted Warren for stirring up trouble on the other side of the Capitol.
“That’s what you do when you run for president,” said Rep. James P. Moran (D-Va.), a senior member of the Appropriations Committee. “You get out front knowing that there are a whole lot of people who are not going to let anyone get to the left of them.” Moran added that Warren “knows as [House Democrats] know that their constituents have no clue about what this derivatives issue is all about. It’s a very complex issue.”
Paul Kane, Sean Sullivan and Aaron C. Davis contributed to this report.Paul Kane, Sean Sullivan and Aaron C. Davis contributed to this report.