WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders reached a deal Tuesday on a $1.1 trillion spending package that would fund most of the federal government through Sept. 30, the end of the current fiscal year.
Because negotiations on the package dragged over policy details, House lawmakers also prepared to move on a short-term spending measure that would avert a government shutdown if they cannot pass the larger bill by Thursday, when current government funding expires.
Leaders in both parties expressed confidence that they would be able to keep the government running.
"There's no reason the government should shut down," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday. "And we're ready to pass a year-long spending bill to take care of this."
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., provided assurances that the bill would pass "before we leave here this week."
Lawmakers battled behind the scenes over dozens of additional policy provisions ranging from the Environmental Protection Agency's jurisdiction over some bodies of water to the District of Columbia's marijuana laws to matters of campaign finance.
The big spending package, which congressional leaders had hoped to have ready Monday, did not come until Tuesday evening. The final legislation would largely keep domestic funding at current levels while providing more money to fight various crises abroad.
The House is expected to vote on the package Thursday, and the short-term measure would help provide the Senate a margin of error for passing the legislation the House sends over before breaking for the winter recess.
The spending bill would fund nearly all of the federal government through September, except for the Department of Homeland Security, which it would fund only through February.
That move comes in response to President Barack Obama's unilateral action to defer the deportation of an estimated 4 million illegal aliens. Congressional Republicans plan to take up funding for the agency -- which has primary responsibility for carrying out the immigration directive -- early next year, when they will control both chambers of Congress and believe they will have more leverage.
The spending bill is geared toward combating threats from afar, with roughly $5.4 billion in emergency funds to fight Ebola in West Africa; roughly $64 billion for wars and other overseas operations; and more than half of the overall package going to military spending.
At 1,603 pages, the bill adheres to strict spending caps negotiated earlier between the White House and deficit-conscious Republicans.
There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the deal, which one Democratic aide called a "split decision" likely to leave both sides unhappy.
One GOP proposal would roll back new regulations that prohibit banks from using federal deposit insurance to cover investments on some complex financial instruments. Republicans also won a $60 million cut at the Environmental Protection Agency and said the agency's workforce would be reduced to the lowest level since 1989.
Meanwhile, Democrats emerged with increases for enforcement activities at the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
The bill also would nullify the District of Columbia's referendum to legalize marijuana, but it would allow Washington to decriminalize the drug, meaning possession of small amounts will no longer be punished.
Environmental regulations on some waterways were nullified for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but the EPA would not be limited in its ability to regulate new bodies of water under the Clean Water Act.
Democrats also fought off Republican efforts to scuttle first lady Michelle Obama's tough rules on the nutritional content of school lunches, but Republicans secured some flexibility on sodium levels and the use of whole grains. Schools will be able to claim a hardship waiver if they can show procuring whole grains would be too expensive or difficult.
Earlier in the day, House Republicans removed one obstacle to passage of the spending measure by announcing they would pass legislation separately to renew a requirement for the federal government to assume some of the insurance risk in losses arising from terrorism.
In talks with Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Republicans led by Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, agreed to the renewal but said they wanted to roll back parts of the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street regulatory law that tightened federal regulation on the financial sector.
That stand-alone bill seemed likely to clear the House, but its fate in the Senate was uncertain.
In an unexpected move, lawmakers also agreed on legislation expected to be incorporated into the spending measure that will permit a reduction in benefits for current retirees at economically distressed multiemployer pension plans.
The pension-related talks between Rep. John Kline, R- Minn., and George Miller, D-Calif., were designed to preserve benefits of current and future retirees at lower levels than currently exist but higher than they would be if their pension funds ran out of money.
"We have a plan here that first and foremost works for the members of the unions, the workers in these companies and it works for the companies," said Miller, retiring at year's end after four decades in Congress.
But the AARP, which claims to represent millions of retirement-age Americans, attacked the agreement as a "secret, last-minute, closed-door deal between a group of companies, unions and Washington politicians to cut the retirement benefits that have been promised to them."
House Speaker John Boehner is expected to have to rely on Democratic votes to help pass the spending bill, as some of his more conservative members have balked, saying it does not go far enough in fighting the president's immigration action.
Some conservative lawmakers demanded a change to deny the use of federal funds to carry out the president's new policy.
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi issued a statement Tuesday saying she was hopeful her rank and file could support the bill but that they needed to review the final language.
Senate approval would then be required to send it to Obama.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the third-ranking GOP senator, joked that last-minute drama with the spending plan "is a Christmas tradition." But, he added, "I don't see it getting derailed. I think it could get slowed down, but I think it will ultimately get across the finish line."
Information for this article was contributed by Ashley Parker and Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times; by David Espo, Andrew Taylor, Alan Fram, Connie Cass and Erica Werner of The Associated Press; and by Ed O'Keefe of The Washington Post.
A Section on 12/10/2014