Some of the highlights included:
+ The plan raises the legal age to buy tobacco products to 21 years,
+ One measure ends the Medical Device Tax and the Cadillac Tax from the Obama health law,
+ Funding is set aside to allow for a study of the health consequences of gun violence,
+ Federal workers would get a 3.1 percent pay raise.
While President Trump had said in the past that he would veto a giant 'omnibus' funding bill, the White House signaled that he would support this effort, which simply split up the 12 funding bills into two parts - one with 8 bills, one with the other four.
One bill combined eight different funding measures: Labor-Health and Human Services-Education; Agriculture; Energy and Water Development; Interior-Environment; Legislative Branch; Military Construction-Veterans Affairs; State-Foreign Operations; and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development.
The second bill contained four funding measures for Defense, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services and General Government, and Homeland Security.
A handful of Republicans grumbled about the process, as the details were just dumped on lawmakers Monday night.
Swamp update: received $1.4 Trillion 2313 pages of spending at 4:30pm yesterday. Yet was just noticed we will vote at 1:10-1:25 p.m today - less than 24 hours later. I will vote no on both bills. @realDonaldTrump should veto & @HouseGOP & @SenateGOP should oppose. But... pic.twitter.com/sAO7zt4R0C
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 17, 2019
I really love how because DJT said he won’t sign another omnibus, Congress is just cutting the omnibus into two bills, sending them to him at the same time, and hoping he won’t notice or care that it's still just actually one big omnibus.
— Brendan Buck (@BrendanBuck) December 16, 2019
The packages still approval in the Senate, where the same type of vote was expected, with some opposition.
"We need to look at how this bill has been loaded up," Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) complained on the Senate floor, bemoaning the non-spending items stuffed into the bill, like a repeal of three major health taxes, a provision to raise the legal age to buy tobacco to age 21, and a number of other items.
Paul also voiced contempt for the bottom line of the spending package.
"We just keep borrowing and borrowing, and there's no end in sight," the Kentucky Republican said.
Budget watchdog groups joined in airing their displeasure with the details of the bills.
We've updated our tally of how much the year-end appropriations bill will add to debt: $500 BILLION
— Tyler Evilsizer (@TylerEvilsizer) December 17, 2019
(based on a late night addition to the bill last night) https://t.co/3tBTzl7pys pic.twitter.com/Spg30HzBcc
“Another $400 billion in debt is the worst possible holiday gift for our children,” said Michael Peterson of the Peterson Foundation. “This last-minute grab-bag budget bill has something political for everyone in Washington, yet it hurts the next generation and the future prosperity of our nation.”
Congress is supposed to finish its government funding work by September 30 of each year - in order to begin the new fiscal year on a clean slate.
But in the past 45 years, lawmakers have completed that work on time only on four occasions, in 1976, 1988, 1994 and 1996.
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