WASHINGTON -- The White House and top lawmakers on Monday endorsed a $1.1 trillion spending bill to carry the nation through September, erasing the threat of a disruptive government shutdown.
"We're very happy with it," President Donald Trump said Monday in an interview. The president said he will sign the bill if it remains "as we discussed."
Negotiators released the 1,665-page bill after Republicans over the weekend dropped numerous demands on the environment, financial regulations from the President Barack Obama era, and abortion. The bill is scheduled for a House vote on Wednesday, with a Senate vote ahead of a midnight Friday deadline.
Democrats said the deal shows they retain considerable clout under Trump.
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"We thought we had the upper hand because a government shutdown would be on their shoulders, and we made that clear," Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said in an interview. "We knew that if we didn't push things too far, we could get a good deal that could make us happy, and that's what happened."
But the White House and some top GOP allies declared victory with the bill, citing billions of dollars more for the military. Trump won a $15 billion down payment on his request to strengthen the military, with $2.5 billion contingent on a new plan to defeat the Islamic State extremist group.
Vice President Mike Pence told CBS News on Monday that the administration "couldn't be more pleased" and called the agreement a "budget deal that's a bipartisan win for the American people."
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., praised the bill as well, saying it "acts on President Trump's commitment to rebuild our military for the 21st century and bolster our nation's border security to protect our homeland."
"We have boosted resources for our defense needs without corresponding increases in non-defense spending," Ryan said in a statement.
Trump and the White House had made concessions last week when the president relented on his demand that the measure include a $1.4 billion down payment for his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Congressional Republicans and Democrats also ignored Trump's proposal to cut billions of dollars from domestic programs.
Democrats boasted of money for foreign assistance and cash-strapped Puerto Rico while winning funding for favored programs such as transit projects and grants for first responders. They also defied Trump on a bid to punish "sanctuary cities" and on immigration enforcement.
Talks on the spending bill were spurred by the need for Democratic votes to pass spending bills. Although Republicans hold majorities in both houses of Congress, the bill must overcome the objections of GOP fiscal conservatives in the House and the 60-vote threshold to avoid a filibuster in the Senate.
"I think you're going to see conservatives have some real concerns with this legislation," Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio said on CNN's New Day, citing domestic spending obtained by Democrats and other issues. "Our job is to do what we told the voters we were going to do."
Republicans also want to move on to a repeal of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as well as an overhaul of the tax code.
"If nothing else, it does allow the president to have at least one major success this week, which is great," said White House Budget Director Mick Mulvaney. "He's going to sign his first substantive piece of legislation this week, and it's going to make dramatic increases in funding to his priorities."
Education fight ahead
The bill to fund the government through the end of September protects higher-education programs that Mulvaney has proposed cutting in 2018, setting the stage for a fight over appropriations before the end of the year.
The congressional budget agreement reached Sunday pares back total federal spending on education by $60 million, but upholds or increases funding for a series of higher-education programs aimed at low-income students.
"This agreement is at once a confirmation of the institutional supremacy of Congress on budgetary issues and a serious bipartisan pushback against the administration's rather extreme proposals," said Barmak Nassirian, director of federal relations and policy analysis at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities. "I can only assume that the 2018 budget will be similarly mainstream and constructive."
The budget deal expands the Pell Grant program for low-income college students by offering up to $2,960 -- half of the maximum award -- to recipients taking summer courses during the 2017-18 academic year. That way, students can take a full load of courses year-round, earn a degree faster and avoid taking on a lot of student debt. An estimated 1 million students could benefit from an average of $1,650 in additional money.
Trump has proposed taking an additional $1.3 billion out of the Pell reserves, leaving about $9.3 billion in the coffers.
"This deal gives with one hand and takes with the other," said Lauren Asher, president of the Institute for College Access and Success, an education nonprofit. "When I look at the big picture, it's sending a mixed message about the importance of college affordability. It restores needed aid, but raids money from the program."
Congress has long been at odds over expanding Pell. Obama doubled Pell funding in 2010 through savings eked out of changes to the federal student loan system, but subsequent budget agreements cut the benefits by not allowing the grants to be used toward summer courses. Providing year-round grants was far more costly than anticipated as college enrollment soared during the Obama administration.
House Republicans last year shot down an agreement to restore year-round Pell Grants, saying it was too expensive. Since then, Ryan has thrown support behind an expansion, as has Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Health agency funds
The spending bill calls for an additional $2 billion for National Institutes of Health, including new money for the cancer "moonshot" initiative -- the 21st Century Cures Act -- championed by former Vice President Joe Biden. The funding for the moonshot drew praise from the Association of American Medical Colleges. The budget deal also includes $475 million for the National Cancer Institute.
The new bill includes a cut to the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Fully funded, however, are programs designed to prepare for pandemics or bioterrorism attacks. The CDC will have $35 million in emergency funds to deal with the lead crisis in Flint, Mich. The effort to combat the Zika virus will be allotted $394 million.
The Office of Adolescent Health's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program received $101 million, on par with 2016 funding. A Health and Human Services Department program to promote abstinence education for teenagers, now renamed "sexual risk avoidance," increased its 2016 funding by 50 percent to $15 million.
The Energy Department's Office of Science will get a $42 million funding increase instead of the $900 million cut called for by Trump in his budget blueprint.
The National Park Service will get a boost of $81 million over the 2016 level -- money that can be used for repairs to park infrastructure.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service gets $11 million more than last year. Some of that money will be used to boost funding for an effort to remove plants and animals from the endangered species list -- a priority of conservatives. The bill maintains a one-year delay on any further Endangered Species Act status "reviews, determinations, and rulemakings" for the greater sage grouse, according to the summary provided by the House Appropriations Committee.
The U.S. Geological Survey will receive an additional $23 million. Nearly half of the that money is marked for an earthquake early-warning system.
Trump had called for a 31 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency's budget for 2018, but the 2017 deal shows a 1 percent cut. The budget plan, as written by lawmakers, does carry with it some demands and restrictions. For example, the agency is prohibited from changing Clean Water Act exemptions for agriculture. It can't regulate lead in ammunition and fishing tackle.
Sen. Joe Manchin, R-W.Va., led the fight for a $1.3 billion provision to preserve health benefits for more than 22,000 retired coal miners and their families.
NASA will get an increase of $368 million, putting the agency close to $20 billion overall for 2017.
"This is a wonderful budget for NASA," said Casey Dreier, director of space policy for the Planetary Society. "This is higher than either the Senate or the House proposed individually."
Information for this article was contributed by Andrew Taylor of The Associated Press; by Billy House, Erik Wasson, Laura Litvan, Steven T. Dennis, Sahil Kapur, Ari Natter, Laurie Asseo, Margaret Talev, Jennifer Jacobs and Andrew Mayeda of Bloomberg News; and by Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, Joel Achenbach, Ben Guarino, Sarah Kaplan, Darryl Fears, Brady Dennis, Lisa Rein and Lena Sun of The Washington Post.
A Section on 05/02/2017