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House approves bipartisan budget and debt ceiling bill
The Democratic-led House of Representatives passed the bipartisan budget and debt ceiling bill Thursday in a vote of 284 to 149.
The legislation will stretch the debt ceiling limit through July 2021 – after the presidential election – and increases spending on both the military and domestic programs.
Defense spending will see a $22 billion bump in the next fiscal year — up to $738 billion — and increase to $740.5 million the following year. Non-defense spending will rise $27 billion to $632 billion and tick up slightly to $634.5 billion the year after.
The Republican-run Senate is expected to vote on it next week, days before the upper chamber goes on recess.
The House, which leaves for summer break Friday, needed to have the debt package done before leaving town. The series of votes was the last of the week.
On Monday it was evident that that would happen as President Trump’s Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin negotiated with Congressional leaders throughout the day. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was even spotted sitting in coach on a delayed Delta flight working out the final details.
And with a tweet Monday night, Trump announced the deal had been hatched.
While Democrats approved of the domestic spending increases, fiscal hawks in the Republican Party complained.
In the end 132 Republicans and 16 Democrats voted against the bill. Among the New York delegation Republican Reps. Lee Zeldin and Tom Reed said nay, as did Democratic Reps. Anthony Brindisi and Kathleen Rice.
After the bill passed, Rep. Thomas Massie, a fiscal conservative and Republican from Kentucky, had the chamber vote on an amended title of the legislation. “The bill to kick the can down the road and for other purposes,” Massie told his colleagues on the floor. That effort failed.
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