Congress sends Trump its first spending bill for 2019

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The House on Thursday passed the first package of fiscal 2019 spending bills, which will test President Trump’s threat to shut down the government over a lack of funding for a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

The House voted 377-20 to pass a $147 billion measure that would fund energy and water projects, military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the legislative branch for the new fiscal year, which starts Oct. 1. The Senate approved the bill on Wednesday in a 92-5 vote.

The legislation is a product of a rare compromise between Republicans and Democrats who had become entrenched in spending warfare and government shutdown threats for many years.

“This is the first time in over a decade that Congress will be sending more than one appropriations bill to the president’s desk before Sept. 30,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen, R-N.J. “We’ve done our best to repair this broken appropriations process.”

The legislation includes $15.23 billion for nuclear weapons security, $172 million for water resources infrastructure, and $13.5 billion for energy programs. It also allocates $86.5 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which has grappled with providing adequate health care for veterans, and $10.3 billion for military construction, which pays for infrastructure for deterrence operations and training “to counter challenges posed by Russia and threats from the Middle East and Africa.”

Now, lawmakers await President Trump’s response.

Trump has given mixed signals about the fiscal year 2019 government budget, which so far doesn’t include any money to pay for the construction of a wall along the Mexican border, which was a top Trump campaign promise.

Trump told Fox News last week “If it was up to me, I’d shut down government over border security.” But he added, “I don’t want to do anything to hurt us or potentially hurt us” in the November midterm election, where Republicans are fighting to keep control of the House.

Both parties are eager to avoid the threat of a partial government shutdown in October, when lawmakers want to go back home and campaign. They are on track to finish most fiscal 2019 spending bills in the next few weeks.

The House is not in session next week but will return the week of Sept. 24 to complete work on a package of four spending bills funding Interior and Environment, Financial Services and General Government, Agriculture, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development programs. Congress will then vote on a two-part measure that would fund the Defense Department as well as Health and Human Services, Labor, and and Education Department programs.

Three remaining 2019 spending bills that would fund the Homeland Security Department as well as Commerce, Justice, and State Departments won’t be completed by the Sept. 30 deadline.

Lawmakers said they’ll pass a temporary funding bill to keep those programs operating until Congress reconvenes after the election. Border security funding is typically included in the Homeland Security Department budget.

The House Appropriations panel passed legislation to fund Homeland for fiscal year 2019 and included $5 billion for a border wall. The Senate version includes only $1.5 billion, which was Trump’s initial request.

Democrats declared victory over the spending process, noting the bill does not include spending reductions called for in the Trump administration’s 2019 budget proposal.

Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the Appropriations panel, called the bill “a bipartisan rejection of President Trump’s extreme budget cuts.”

Many GOP conservatives rejected the measure and called for Republican leaders to push for including conservative policy riders that were stripped out in negotiations with the Senate, where Democrats are needed to pass most legislation. Other Republicans said spending levels are too high.

“House Republican priorities were shut out across the board,” Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker, R-N.C., said Thursday.

Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., defended the bill as a compromise between two parties and both chambers.

“You aren’t going to get everything you want,” Ryan said.

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