The spending bill being pushed by Speaker Paul Ryan and House GOP leaders is over 2,000 pages long. Lawmakers in both parties are upset that there has been little time to review it. | John Shinkle/POLITICO House passes omnibus package to avert shutdown The Senate must act by midnight Friday.

The House passed a massive $1.3 trillion spending package on Thursday, but there are significant doubts over whether it can pass the Senate before the federal government‘s funding runs out at midnight Friday.

House action is one of the final chapters in months of often-chaotic political struggles over the federal budget — partisan squabbles that led to two short government shutdowns. Now Republicans are hoping to convince Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to allow a vote before the shutdown deadline, though no one seems to know whether he will.


On Thursday afternoon, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) set up a procedural vote that would occur at 1 a.m. on Saturday if he can’t get an agreement from all senators. That's one hour into a shutdown, and Paul could push it at least another hour into Saturday if he's willing to wield the full extent of his procedural power.

Still, the bill will become law sometime this weekend at the latest. And with control of Congress up for grabs in November — and a president who changed position on major issues on a regular basis — there were times when it didn't look like a final deal was possible.

But in the end, tens of billions of dollars in new spending, all of which will increase the budget deficit, was able to buy enough support from each side. Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) declared passage of the omnibus package was vital for "rebuilding" the Pentagon, which Republicans and President Donald Trump claim was neglected during the Obama era. Ryan has been pushing the military funding issue hard throughout the budget fight.

"This bill starts construction on the wall. It turns the Gateway decision over to the Trump administration. It funds our war on opioids. It invests in infrastructure. It funds school safety and mental health," Ryan said at a press conference on Thursday. "But what this bill is ultimately about—what we fought for for so long—is finally giving our military the tools and the resources it needs to do the job."

The final House vote was 256-167. A majority of members in both parties ended up backing the 2,200 page bill, despite objections that lawmakers had not had a chance to review the final measure, which was only publicly posted after 8 p.m. on Wednesday.



The day didn't start out that smoothly, however.

Faced with opposition from Democrats and conservative Republicans, the House barely passed a procedural rule allowing debate on the package Thursday morning, approving the measure by a 211-207 margin. Some members complained they were still waiting to vote when the gavel came down.

A handful of House Democrats told GOP leaders that they’d join with them in voting for the rule. But when it came time for the vote, the only one who did was Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate running for Senate this fall in Arizona.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy downplayed criticism from some members that they didn't have adequate time to review the measure, noting that Ryan and the leadership had discussed key issues with the rank-and-file on multiple occasions.

"Because we have passed all 12 appropriations bills, you have gone through so much of this already, and the speaker has been walking everybody through this the bill during the [negotiations], it's not something I'd like to keep longer," McCarthy said.

Increasing the urgency, a large group of members are also expected to attend Friday's funeral for the late Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.). A number of congressional trips overseas are also slated to begin on Thursday evening.



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Senate leaders spent Thursday afternoon trying to set up a vote, but conservatives continued to resist, raising the possibility of another brief shutdown. Still, whenever the bill comes up, said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, "I’m confident it will pass the Senate by a comfortable margin as well.”

When that will happen is the hottest question in the Capitol. Paul said Thursday afternoon he won't make a decision on allowing a quick vote until he finishes reading the bill.

“I’m on page 56 right now, and so I’ve got a few more pages to read. I don’t have any other comment,” Paul said. He later tweeted his objections about the bill, page by page.

Another conservative senator angry about the bill, Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, said he will “probably not” delay passage.

Senate leaders are hoping to pass the spending bill on Thursday afternoon, but any single senator can hold it up.

While large majorities in both parties want the bill to pass — and voted for the budget agreement that ended last month’s government shutdown — lawmakers are using what is likely the last must-pass legislation of the year in order to move their own proposals or score some political points.

A stabilization package for the Obamacare insurance market was left out of the omnibus, so Senate Republicans pressed to attach it as an amendment to the spending bill.

McConnell has promised Sen. Susan Collins a vote on that proposal if she wants one, but Democrats objected to an attempt to amend the spending bill with the language shoring up health insurance markets because it included abortion restrictions. Adding the Obamacare amendment also could have thrown the entire plan to fund the federal government into flux since the House already skipped town and conservatives do not want to do anything to help Obamacare.

Conservative Republicans came out against the spending bill in droves. It took just minutes after the bill’s release for the House Freedom Caucus to formally oppose it. There also has been little time to review the sprawling legislation, which has upset lawmakers in both parties.

"The nuclear launch codes have less security on them than the text of the omnibus does," said Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) initially urged her members to vote against the House rule to consider the omnibus — the first step on the floor to debating the package — after congressional leaders failed to secure protections for so-called Dreamers in the funding bill.

While Pelosi supported the overall spending package — she and other Democrats have bragged that they defeated many “poison pill” rides sought by Republicans — the California Democrat is unhappy that there was no action on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Trump has sought to end the program, although the issue is now likely heading for the Supreme Court.

Pelosi also laid into Trump during a speech on the House floor, slamming him for claiming victory on border wall funding.

"That's not completely true, Mr. President," Pelosi said. "There's some resources for fencing and the rest there. But some of that money is for technology and other ways to protect our borders... But if you want to think you're getting a wall, you just think it and sign the bill."

Pelosi’s opposition to the rule was a problem for Ryan and his top lieutenants, although they ultimately overcame it.

Trump's apathy toward the omnibus package was also a challenge. While he and other White House officials have publicly called for its passage, Trump on Wednesday vented to Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that he wanted more money for his border wall with Mexico. Ultimately, Trump agreed to sign the bill once it’s passed, but only after creating a panic with GOP leaders who had to scramble to convince the president that he had secured real legislative wins.

Early on, congressional leaders considered several options for trading Dreamer protections for wall funding in the omnibus but ultimately couldn’t come to a deal. The White House wanted full funding for the wall — $25 billion — but Democrats were willing to consider that only if Republicans agreed to offer Dreamers a path to citizenship, not just a temporary reprieve.

Lawmakers say they were never even close.



"This bill was never going to be the vehicle to deal with that. If you put something with legal status on this bill, you lose a flood of Republican House members. And Democrats are not going to give you $25 billion of wall for temporary status for DACA," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). "That's never been possible."

Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.