Roll Call: House Easily Passes 10-Week Stopgap Spending Bill

They join the Senate - see story below.

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The House on a 342-85 vote easily passed a 10-week stopgap spending bill late Wednesday, clearing the measure for President Barack Obama’s signature with two days to spare before a government shutdown.

The Obama administration voiced support for passage of the continuing resolution in a statement of administration policy. The House was expected to adjourn later Wednesday and not return until after the November elections.

The House vote, as well as an earlier Senate vote of 72-26, were in contrast to weeks of battles over whether money to fight the Zika virus should be made available to Planned Parenthood locations in Puerto Rico and over emergency aid for stricken Flint, Michigan. Congressional leaders smoothed over a final impasse by committing to include financial help for Flint's contaminated water system in subsequent legislation expected to clear in the lame-duck session after the elections.

But it’s clear that as time ran out to get the stopgap spending bill to the president, other issues that were sticking points will pop up again in spending negotiations on tap for December.

“This short time frame will allow Congress to complete our annual appropriations work without jeopardizing important government functions,” House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers said of the CR, shortly before the chamber cleared the measure.

In addition to continuing fiscal 2016 levels for programs through Dec. 9 — though that level was knocked down by just under half a percent to fit under budget caps — the package also includes $1.1 billion in funding to respond to the Zika virus, $500 million in flood relief for Louisiana and other states, and full fiscal 2017 appropriations for military construction and veterans.

During floor debate, Rogers touted the fiscal 2017 Military Construction-VA bill, which he said if enacted would represent the first time since 2009 that lawmakers have pushed through a regular appropriations bill that resulted from a bicameral conference.

“It’s not perfect, but it ensures we meet our nation’s critical needs,” the Kentucky Republican said, adding, “At this point, it is what we must do to fulfill our congressional responsibility, to keep the lights on in our government.”

From the NYT: Obama’s Last Budget, and Last Budget Battle With Congress

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President Obama on Tuesday sent his final annual budget proposal to a hostile Republican-led Congress, rejecting the lame-duck label to declare that his plan “is about looking forward,” with new initiatives that include $19 billion for a broad cybersecurity plan.

The budget for the 2017 fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1, would top $4 trillion, although just over one-quarter of that is the so-called discretionary spending for domestic and military programs that the president and Congress dicker over each year. The rest is for mandatory spending, chiefly interest on the federal debt and theSocial Security, Medicareand Medicaid benefits that are expanding automatically as the population ages.

The deficit would increase in this fiscal year to $616 billion from $438 billion last year, the budget projects, in part because of tax cuts that Mr. Obama and Congress agreed in December to make permanent. That would make this year’s shortfall equal to 3.3 percent of the economy’s output, or gross domestic product, up from 2.5 percent and exceeding the 3 percent threshold that economists consider sustainable for a growing economy.

Mr. Obama’s proposed 10-year savings — some spending cuts, but primarily almost $3 trillion in higher taxes from wealthy individuals and some businesses, including a $10-a-barrel fee on crude oil — would push deficits down again for a couple years and offset costs of the president’s proposed initiatives.

Then deficits would begin increasing again with the retirement and health costs of aging Americans. The administration says annual deficits would remain below 3 percent of the gross domestic product through the decade to 2026. The accumulated debt held by the public would grow from $14 trillion currently to $21.3 trillion in that time, but measured against a growing economy, the debt would be stable at about 75 percent of gross domestic product.