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"Last night we were able to resolve our differences on this package," Senate President Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) Said Thursday. At a meeting of more than a dozen officials. | Al Drago / Getty Images
The bill would give the president one of his main goals. But there is a trap.
GOP leaders believe they have found a way to counter the latest threats to close President Donald Trump: send him a financing bill that can not be resisted.
Capitol Hill executives announced Thursday a major funding agreement for the 2019 budget, which is one of the top priorities of the Trump administration – the Pentagon's first on-time spending bill since 2008.
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The same package also funds some of the government's most sprawling agencies to billions of dollars more than Trump has demanded. And if Trump refuses to sign, much of the government, including parts of the Pentagon, would shut up.
"You have effectively shut down the entire government," said Representative Tom Cole (R-Okla.), A senior official, about the funding deal that he has helped shape.
Leaders on both sides detailed the strategy for the first time on Thursday, barely 17 days before government spending ran out. The Senate should easily approve the package next week.
As part of this tactic, lawmakers will vote on a two-bill spending program that will fund the Pentagon as well as health, work and education programs. There is also a third element: Leaders said the package would include temporary funding for each other agency facing financial failure on September 30th.
If it was approved, the bill would keep government operations open until December 7, about a month after the imminent mid-term elections.
Long-time strategists on both sides said the strategy was effectively linking the hands of the administration – forcing Trump to decide whether to sign a bill with the domestic funding levels he hates or impose a potential funding crisis at the Pentagon.
"The president will have to sign this bill or close the government because it contains the current resolution," said representative Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), One of the leading Democratic negotiators on the package.
Trump himself encouraged congressional progress on the Pentagon's spending bill, which would break the military's stop-and-go funding cycle. With regard to domestic funding, Trump representatives reprimanded Congress spending.
It's not just Trump who's complaining about the huge national bill. Householders are also discouraged by funding increases, as well as the lack of conservative political gains at a time when the GOP controls all levels of government.
"Most Democrats will vote for this and will smile very hard," House Meadows Caucus Chair Mark Meadows told reporters on Thursday. "It's a Democratic bill on work and health."
The Republican Review Committee, an influential group of about 170 GOP lawmakers, also issued a statement Thursday suggesting that its members would be willing to oppose the next package – even if it meant voting against the Pentagon's liquidity.
According to lawmakers and assistants, House GOP leaders are not worried about the number of whips, partly because of the politically toxic perspective of voting against the army budget a few weeks before election day.
"If they want to vote against the defense, it's up to them to decide," said Cole, chief negotiator on the national package. He cited his Democratic colleague, Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.), On how the negotiators on both sides decided to work together: "We can have an agreement where we can fight, but we can not to have both.
The precise details on funding and language remain vague until the final text is implemented. But the negotiators said the final package would largely eliminate the partisan language favored by Republicans in the House.
This means that lawmakers have rejected attempts to repay Planned Parenthood or destabilize Obamacare, as well as many other conservative runners.
"Certainly there are a lot of disappointments in the bill," said Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.), Who was one of the GOP's negotiators on the package.
For weeks, lawmakers have planned to combine the widely-defended defense bill with the controversial bill on labor, health and safety at work. This unprecedented combination has allowed the package to skyrocket into the Senate for the first time in 22 years, while relaunching the official conference negotiations for the first time since 2007.
Senate Finance Director Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), One of those who originally introduced the strategy, called it a "pivot" of congressional spending spending so far. this year. "A top priority for Republicans; the other, the top priority for Democrats. Both are important to all Americans, "said Shelby.
At the White House, interviewed by the press pool about the spending agreement, Deputy Press Officer Lindsay Walters replied:
"We look forward to reviewing the bill when it is released."
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