Just after 3:00am Eastern, the Senate approved the two-year budget deal that the House agreed to on Wednesday without changes. With the deal headed to Obama’s desk — where he’s expected to sign it — lawmakers will now turn their attention to passing either 12 individual spending bills or one large omnibus bill.
Category: Budget
Senate to Consider Budget Deal at 1 AM
Not all Congressional work is hearings, fundraisers, cocktail parties. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced today that the Senate was on track to pass the budget deal. If there were no procedural issues, the vote is expected to occur at 1am Friday morning.
House Approves Budget Deal
The House on Wednesday passed a two-year budget package that includes a suspension of the debt ceiling by a vote of 266-167. As has become custom, the measure passed with minimal Republican support: 187 Democrats voted for the measure but only 79 Republicans did. The measure now moves to the Senate, which could take it up as early as tomorrow. The budget measure (HR 1314) would raise discretionary spending caps by $80 billion for defense and domestic spending in both 2016 and 2017, splitting the amount evenly between the two categories.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill quickly, even though GOP presidential candidate and US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) vowed to filibuster the legislation. Because the underlying legislation that’s being used as a vehicle for the deal has already passed the Senate, the measure could see a vote to cut off debate in the chamber tomorrow. Action could occur over the weekend, though votes might get pushed to Monday, just one day before Treasury Secretary Lew’s November 3rd debt ceiling deadline.
White House Issues SAP in Support of Budget Deal
Today, the White House has issued a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) in support of the budget deal that will soon pass the House. In it’s support of the passage of HR 1314, the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2015, the Administration’s specifically cited its support of the inclusion of funds for education, job training and research.
House Goes First on Budget Deal
At midnight last night, the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015 was introduced in the House, and the House Rules Committee is expected to consider the measure tomorrow paving the way for the full House to consider the legislation Wednesday. Passage is expected Wednesday and the measure will move to the Senate Wednesday night. The Senate is expected to consider and pass the measure by the end of the week.
The timing will give Boeher plenty of time to pass something before he retires and the elections for Paul Ryan as Speaker are held Thursday as well as before the national debt limit expires on November 3rd.
After the measure passes, the House and Senate Appropriations committees will begin working with the new top line budget amounts, known as 302(b)s, and those committees will begin on crafting new FY16 appropriations bills to pass before the December 11th Continuing Resolution expires.