“What I wanted to do was a benign bill, a bill that would fund the government adequately, that would not have any earth-shaking changes. And I think that’s what we have,” Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky.,  said.

“What I wanted to do was a benign bill, a bill that would fund the government adequately, that would not have any earth-shaking changes. And I think that’s what we have,” Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., said. Vlad G/Shutterstock.com

Congressional Negotiators Reach Deal on Omnibus Spending Plan

Legislation includes all 12 appropriations bills and funds the government through the end of September,

It is 1,582 pages of give and take—some might even dare to call it compromise—that provides at least a nine-month truce in the fierce fighting over the federal budget that has torn Congress asunder for years.

Like the budget agreement that preceded it, the omnibus spending bill for the remainder of fiscal 2014 unveiled Monday night by congressional appropriators represents a small deal that provides few changes and no major overhauls to key programs targeted by each party.

The legislation, which includes all 12 of the usual appropriations bills and will fund the government through the end of September, is expected to pass Congress this week, giving lawmakers little time to dig through the massive document.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Harold Rogers described it Monday as a status-quo funding bill, one that prevents another government shutdown while giving Republicans time to regroup and focus on their priorities in the appropriations process for the next fiscal year.

“What I wanted to do was a benign bill, a bill that would fund the government adequately, that would not have any earth-shaking changes. And I think that’s what we have,” Rogers said.

Despite Republican pressures during the negotiations, the final omnibus legislation does not make sweeping changes to the Affordable Care Act. Though Republicans did not get the cuts they wanted, neither did Democrats get funding increases.

“There’s nothing in the bill that knocks Obamacare,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Barbara Mikul­ski. “Obamacare lives another day.”

Still, Republicans on Monday called the deal a victory, noting that it maintains status-quo spending levels for the Affordable Care Act; it eliminates $10 billion in funding for the Independent Payment Advisory Board, set up in the new law to make binding recommendations to Congress for reducing Medicare costs beginning in fiscal 2015; and it does not include $700 million in funds for a pre-kindergarten education initiative championed by President Obama.

Overall, the measure cuts funding for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development; the legislative branch; and the State Department and foreign operations, putting their total budgets below the levels enacted in fiscal 2013 spending allocations. Of those, Defense was hardest hit, losing $32.8 billion from the prior fiscal year.

All other departments saw modest increases from fiscal 2013 to fiscal 2014.

And while the omnibus makes a reduction in funding for the legislative branch overall (from $4.28 billion to $4.26 billion), it actually increases the allocation for the House from the previous fiscal year, while keeping level funding for the Capitol Police, which responded to a car chase near the Capitol that ended in a fatal shooting last year.

Rogers said he anticipates that conservatives will support the measure, given its cuts in discretionary spending. “The overall discretionary number is lower than it was when Obama took office,” he said. “So we’ve cut the discretionary side of the budget now for four years running, which is historic. It has not been done since the Korean War.”

House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy echoed that sentiment. “It’s $29 billion less than what we even had in the Path to Prosperity,” he said.

In a rare bipartisan victory, the bill also reverses controversial pension cuts for disabled veterans and provides a fix for cuts to survivors’ benefits, leaving pension changes for other retired veterans to a larger overhaul that the Senate Armed Services Committee and others will take up later this year. Rogers said Monday that he was confident those changes would inspire even some of his most skeptical colleagues to support the overall omnibus. “I think a lot of members will focus on that,” he said.

Rogers added that he is hopeful that the omnibus will garner the overwhelming support of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle, much as the budget deal did in December. A vote on the omnibus is expected in the House on Wednesday, with a cloture vote in the Senate likely on Friday. Final passage could come as late as Saturday evening.

“We hope it will get a strong vote,” Mikulski said. “The fact is that this is a strong, bipartisan bill and it is a bicameral bill.”

The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a continuing resolution to give Congress the time it needs for final passage of the omnibus. Under current law, the funding mechanism keeping the government’s doors open will expire Wednesday at midnight. The CR, which is expected to pass both chambers, will move that deadline back to Saturday at midnight, giving the Senate time to pass the omnibus.

Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, who opposed the Murray-Ryan budget in December, was skeptical of the omnibus, but he suggested Senate Republicans wouldn’t derail the measure now.

“We’re not going to stop the process mid-year,” he said.

While Sessions believes the bill’s passage all but forecloses the possibility of another shutdown—“that seemed to settle that,” he said—he had reservations about the appropriations process, specifically what he cast as the decline of regular order.

Since the legislation includes all 12 funding bills, Congress will not have to pass any more continuing resolutions for government agencies or departments this year.

The bill sets funding for government agencies through the remainder of fiscal 2014, which ends Sept. 30, at $1.012 trillion. Each federal agency will now have to subtract its spending since Oct. 1 from its top-line spending level before allocating the remaining resources.

The omnibus legislation is the result of a month’s negotiations between Rogers, Mikulski, and their subcommittee chairs, far less time than is typical for development of a spending bill of this kind. Conservative groups are already railing against appropriators for rushing the bill through, but Rogers and Mikulski said Monday that they were pleased with what they were able to accomplish in such a short time frame.

“Senator Mikulski was a great partner to work with,” Rogers said. “We had long, laborious negotiations, of course. But I am pleased with the result.”

The two were still engaged in a tug-of-war as late as Sunday evening, Mikulski added. “We worked last night up until about 7 o’clock. You know, we were done before Downton Abbey,” she said.

Billy House and Michael Catalini contributed to this report.

(Image via Vlad G/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.