Reid presses for quick vote on spending

The Senate began debating a $1.1 trillion U.S. government spending bill as Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and President Barack Obama urged members to facilitate quick passage of the measure.

Leading the charge against the bill, which would forestall a government shutdown, are two senators who agree on almost nothing -- Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Republican Ted Cruz.

"I would hope that we would work something out to get this done tonight," Reid, a Nevada Democrat, said Friday on the Senate floor. "I would hope that cooler heads would prevail and we could move forward and get this done."

Timing for a Senate vote is uncertain. The House on Friday voted to extend government funding through Wednesday, although Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, haven't said whether the Senate will pass that measure to allow more time for action on the broader bill.

Reid has said the chamber could stay in session through the weekend or return next week to finish its remaining business for the year. That includes renewal of a group of expired tax breaks and terrorism risk insurance, as well as confirming several nominees to executive and judicial posts.

One day after Democratic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi publicly chastised him for supporting the bill, the president said there were provisions "I really do not like." At the same time, he said there were other parts that "fund health insurance, early childhood education, the fight against climate change and expand manufacturing hubs to grow jobs."

Warren of Massachusetts and Louisiana Republican David Vitter introduced an amendment Friday to strip an unrelated banking provision from the spending bill.

"Congress should not put taxpayers on the hook for another bailout, and this giveaway that was drafted by Citigroup lobbyists has no place in a critical government funding bill," Warren said in a statement.

The House passed the spending bill 219-206 on Thursday after a day of discord over the measure.

Warren is leading Senate Democrats' opposition to the banking language, demanded by Republicans, that would ease rules enacted to protect taxpayers against bank losses after souring derivative trades helped cause the 2008 financial crisis.

The banking provision, which prompted vehement opposition from Pelosi and other House Democrats and held up a vote Thursday, would let JPMorgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and other lenders keep swaps trading in units with federal backstops.

Cruz of Texas has said he will use all possible procedural tactics to add language to the spending measure blocking implementation of Obama's immigration order. The president said Nov. 20 that he would temporarily halt deportations for about 5 million illegal immigrants in the U.S., a move Republicans describe as amnesty.

Last year, he led the drive to defund the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that resulted in a 16-day partial government shutdown.

"Sen. Cruz continues to pursue a vote on defunding the president's amnesty," his spokesman, Catherine Frazier, said Friday.

With government funding set to expire at midnight Thursday, the House vote on the bill was delayed for seven hours as Speaker John Boehner sought to round up Republican support, and Obama and other White House officials telephoned Democrats.

"I know that the president was whipping and he was supporting this bill, and I know that Jamie Dimon was whipping," said Rep. Maxine Waters, a California Democrat, referring to the chairman of JPMorgan. "That's an odd combination."

House Democrats met with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, who "made a very strong pitch" for the bill, said Rep. Chaka Fattah of Pennsylvania.

The spending measure would fund most of the government through September.

The dispute over the banking rule is a preview of Republican plans to roll back other business regulations when they take control of both chambers in 2015.

Policy disagreement

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday that even with Thursday's policy disagreement between Pelosi and Obama, the two have the same priorities.

"It's hard to think of anybody who the president has worked with more closely or more successfully than leader Pelosi," Earnest told reporters. "People who underestimate Nancy Pelosi do so at great risk."

Republicans pointed out that 70 rank-and-file House Democrats had supported an identical banking provision in a vote on a stand-alone bill in October 2013.

GOP and Democratic officials also said Pelosi's office and the White House had been informed last week that the bank-related provision would be included in the legislation, an assertion that contradicts her statement that she didn't know until shortly before it was made public.

In further evidence of Democratic infighting, Appropriations Committee Democrats in the Senate circulated a memo that noted not only the 2013 vote but also approval for the same provision earlier this year in the House Appropriations Committee. "So the notion that this was a surprise to anyone in Congress or at the White House is a stretch," it said.

Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee when Obama was elected president in 2008, said Friday that the disagreement between Obama and Pelosi demonstrated the kind of intraparty divisions that are typical after a major electoral loss.

"It sure is fun to watch from the other side," McCain said.

A campaign provision would permit a tenfold increase in donations that individuals can make to national political parties each year, to $324,000 from $32,400.

A deal on the spending bill was announced Tuesday after Senate Democratic negotiators accepted the banking-rule changes and Republican demands on other policy provisions.

Democrats supporting the bill included Reps. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina and Steny Hoyer of Maryland, both members of the party leadership, and John Dingell of Michigan, who is leaving the House after 59 years, the longest tenure in history.

Republican opponents included Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who was elected to the Senate last month, and Dave Brat of Virginia, who defeated former Majority Leader Eric Cantor in a primary this year.

Although Democrats weren't pleased about the policy provisions, they said they beat back dozens of others that Republicans had sought, including revisions focused on environmental and labor protections.

The Department of Homeland Security, responsible for immigration policy, would be financed only through Feb. 27. Republicans want to use the agency's spending bill to block Obama from easing deportation rules for millions of illegal immigrants.

The funding measure would allow exceptions to clean-water laws for agricultural refuse and block the District of Columbia from spending money to legalize marijuana after a voter-approved measure allowing possession of as much as 2 ounces for personal use.

The plan would roll back safety rules on rest for truck drivers, ignoring the pleas of consumer activists and Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx.

The provision would temporarily suspend rules while a study is conducted about the number of trucks driven on congested roads. Under the change, truckers would be able to work as many as 82 hours a week.

The plan includes a proposal sought by the National Rifle Association that lets gun manufacturers use lead to produce ammunition, and a labor provision exempting claim adjusters from overtime requirements during major disasters.

The measure would seek to shore up the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. by allowing some underfunded multiemployer pension plans to reduce benefits. The provision reflects an agreement by House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline, a Minnesota Republican, and George Miller, a California Democrat.

Information for this article was contributed by Kathleen Hunter, Erik Wasson, Derek Wallbank, James Rowley, Richard Rubin, Angela Greiling Keane, Jonathan Allen, Kathleen Miller and Heidi Przybyla of Bloomberg News and by David Espo, Andrew Taylor, Nedra Pickler, Charles Babington and Alan Fram of The Associated Press.

A Section on 12/13/2014