Congress agrees $1 trillion budget
deal – but no money for border wall
Negotiators reach agreement on
spending package to keep the US federal government funded until September,
according to aides
Ben Jacobs and agencies
@Bencjacobs
Monday 1 May 2017 05.08 BST First published on Monday 1 May
2017 03.37 BST
Negotiators have reached a bipartisan agreement on a
spending package to keep the US federal government funded until the end of
September, according to congressional aides.
The House of Representatives and Senate must approve the
deal before the end of Friday and send it to the president, Donald Trump, for
his signature to avoid the first government shutdown since 2013.
Congress is expected to vote early this week on the
agreement that is likely to include increases for defense spending and border
security.
No money will be allocated for Trump’s pet project of a
border wall with Mexico after he bowed to Democratic resistance to the plan.
However, the deal will allocate an additional $1.5bn for border security, which
one congressional aide described as “the most robust border security increase
in roughly a decade”, and there was no language in the bill preventing Mexico
from paying for the wall if it so desired.
A senior congressional aide told the Guardian that the deal
increased defense spending by $12.5bn, with the possibility of $2.5bn more
contingent on the White House presenting an anti-Isis plan to Congress. Trump
had requested $30bn in increased defense spending.
Democrats were pushing to protect funding for women’s
healthcare provider Planned Parenthood and sought additional Medicaid money to
help the poor in Puerto Rico get healthcare. Both of those goals were achieved.
According to a senior congressional aide, the deal also
protects other important Democratic priorities. The EPA’s budget is at 99% of
current levels and includes increased infrastructure spending as well.
It also achieves a bipartisan goal in achieving permanent
funding to cover health care and retirement benefit for coal miners at risk of
losing those benefits.
The House is likely to vote first, probably early in the
week and send the measure to the Senate for approval before Friday’s midnight
deadline when existing funds expire.
Republicans who control Congress and opposition Democrats
have been in intensive negotiations for weeks over the legislation that would
provide around $1 trillion in Washington money for an array of federal programs,
from airport and border security operations to soldiers’ pay, medical research,
foreign aid and domestic education.
The Republican-led Congress averted a government shutdown
last Friday by voting for a stop-gap spending bill that gave lawmakers another
week to work out federal spending over the final five months of the fiscal
year.
Congress was tied up for months trying to work out $1
trillion in spending priorities for the current fiscal year. Lawmakers were
supposed to have taken care of the fiscal 2017 appropriations bills by last
October.
Democrats backed Friday’s stop-gap bill a day after House
Republican leaders again delayed a vote on major healthcare legislation sought
by Trump and opposed by Democrats. The legislation would dismantle the 2010
Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare, but Republican moderates balked at
provisions added to entice hard-line conservatives.
The Trump administration also agreed to continue funding for
a major component of Obamacare despite Republican vows to end the program.
Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report.
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