Compromise plan keeps gov't afloat
WASHINGTON — A huge, $1.1 trillion spending bill funding every corner of government faces its first test in the House, where conservatives are unhappy because it fails to challenge President Barack Obama’s immigration policy and many Democrats are displeased because it weakens the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulation of risky financial instruments.
Another provision drawing fire would allow pensions to be cut for current retirees covered by some economically-distressed multiemployer plans, part of a package agreed to unexpectedly Tuesday after secretive talks.
The 1,603-page measure was unveiled late Tuesday and will be scrutinized in advance of a House vote Thursday. But support from the top leaders in both the House and the Senate appears to cement its passage and prevent a government shutdown Thursday midnight.
Rep. Hal Rogers, R-Ky., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said the measure will “responsibly fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown.”
The measure adheres to tight budget caps negotiated previously between the White House and Republicans, freezing agency budgets, on average. It also includes several provisions to fulfill Republican policy objectives, including significantly weakening new regulations that require banks to set up separate affiliates to deal in the more exotic and riskier forms of complex financial instruments called swaps.
The bill will permit the government to operate normally through the Sept. 30, 2015.
