Frustrations mounted as GOP Sen. Rand Paul held up voting on the broad measure in hopes of obtaining a recorded vote on reversing its spending increases.<\/b>
\nWith a midnight government shutdown creeping closer, both Republicans and Democrats grappled with internal party divisions in advance of hoped-for showdown votes Thursday night on a massive budget deal.
Frustrations mounted as GOP Sen. Rand Paul held up voting on the broad measure in hopes of obtaining a recorded vote on reversing its spending increases.
\u201cI ran for office because I was very critical of President Obama\u2019s trillion-dollar deficits,\u201d the Kentucky senator said. \u201cNow we have Republicans hand in hand with Democrats offering us trillion-dollar deficits. I can\u2019t in all honesty look the other way.\u201d
The Trump administration, which favored approval of the measure, was preparing for a \u201clapse\u201d in appropriations, an official with the Office of Management and Budget said, commenting only on condition of anonymity. That suggested a short shutdown, if any, less than a month after the three-day interruption last month.
Agencies brought out now-familiar contingency plans. The partial shutdown would essentially force half the federal workforce to stay home, freeze some operations and close some parks and outposts. Services deemed essential would continue, including Social Security payments, the air traffic control system and law enforcement. Approval in the Senate seemed assured \u2014 eventually \u2014 but the situation in the House remained dicey. In that chamber, both progressive Democrats and tea party Republicans opposed the measure, which contains roughly $400 billion in new spending for the Pentagon, domestic agencies, disaster relief and extending a host of health care provisions.
However, House GOP leaders were confident they had shored up support among conservatives for the measure, which would shower the Pentagon with money but add hundreds of billions of dollars to the nation\u2019s $20 trillion-plus debt.
House Democratic leaders opposed the measure \u2014 arguing it should resolve the plight of immigrant \u201cDreamers\u201d who face deportation after being brought to the U. S. illegally as children \u2014 but not with all their might.
The legislation doesn\u2019t address immigration, though Republican Speaker Paul Ryan said again Thursday he was determined to bring an immigration bill to the floor this year, albeit only one that has President Donald Trump\u2019s blessing.
At a late afternoon meeting, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California made it plain that she wasn\u2019t pressuring fellow Democrats to kill the bill, which is packed with money for party priorities like infrastructure, combating opioid abuse and help for college students. Still, it represented a bitter defeat for Democrats who followed a risky strategy to use the party\u2019s leverage on the budget to address immigration and ended up scalded by last month\u2019s three-day government shutdown.
Republicans were sheepish about the bushels of dollars for Democratic priorities and the return next year of $1 trillion-plus deficits. But they pointed to money they have long sought for the Pentagon, which they say needs huge sums for readiness, training and weapons modernization.
\u201cIt provides what the Pentagon needs to restore our military\u2019s edge for years to come,\u201d said Ryan.
Beyond $300 billion worth of record increases for the military and domestic programs, the agreement adds $89 billion in overdue disaster aid for hurricane-slammed Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, a politically charged increase in the government\u2019s borrowing cap and a grab bag of health and tax provisions. There\u2019s also $16 billion to renew a slew of expired tax breaks that Congress seems unable to kill.
Cotton growers and dairy farmers would get relief courtesy of the bipartisan leadership of the Senate Appropriations Committee, while popular funding for community health centers would be extended for two years, among myriad health provisions. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky won a break for tiny Berea College in his state, exempting it from a new tax on its endowments that was part of last year\u2019s GOP tax bill.
\u201cI love bipartisanship, as you know,\u201d said Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. \u201cBut the problem is the only time we discover bipartisanship is when we spend more money.\u201d
Pelosi was the chief architect of a failed strategy to use Democratic leverage on the budget to try to force GOP leaders to agree to legislation for younger immigrants whose protection against deportation under former President Barack Obama\u2019s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, expires next month.
But the deal contains far more money demanded by Democrats than had seemed possible only weeks ago.
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to get DACA as part of this,\u201d said Rep. John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the top Democrat on the Budget Committee. \u201cSo if we can negotiate a deal like I think we\u2019ve gotten that essentially meets every other one of our priorities then I think that\u2019s where a lot of the Democrats are.\u201d
Added conservative Democrat Henry Cuellar of Texas: \u201cIt\u2019s an easy \u2018yes.\u2019\u201d
Combined with the Republicans\u2019 December tax cut bill, the burst in military and other spending would put the GOP-controlled government on track for the first $1 trillion-plus deficits since Obama\u2019s first term and the aftermath of the most recent recession nine years ago.
\u201cThis budget deal shows just how broken the budget process is, that Congress thinks the only way to agree to a budget is to put hundreds of billions of dollars on the nation\u2019s credit card,\u201d said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Center for a Responsible Federal Budget, a Washington-based group that advocates for fiscal discipline.
Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said the measure amounts to \u201cdoubling down on the irresponsible mentality in Congress of spend-now-pay-later.\u201d
The deal is a framework that repeals tight budget \u201ccaps\u201d from a failed 2011 budget agreement, but the spending won\u2019t take effect until Congress passes a follow-up omnibus appropriations bill that will take weeks to negotiate.
The agreement would increase the government\u2019s borrowing limit to prevent a first-ever default on U. S. obligations that looms in just a few weeks. The debt limit would be suspended through March of 2019, putting the next vote on it safely past this year\u2019s midterm elections.
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Alan Fram, Jill Colvin and Richard Lardner contributed to this report.<\/p>\n

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