House nears vote on $1.1 trillion spending bill; GOP contends era of big government returns

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Big spending measure set for House vote riles GOP

WASHINGTON — The House Thursday passed a huge spending measure combining major spending boosts for domestic agencies and foreign aid with more than 5,000 back-home projects sought by lawmakers.

The House passed the 1,088-page, $1.1 trillion measure — combining $447 billion in operating budgets with about $650 billion in payments for federal benefit programs such as Medicare and Medicaid — by a 221-202 vote. The Senate immediately voted to begin debate with a final vote likely this weekend.

The 221-202 vote to approve the House-Senate compromise bill sends it to the Senate, which may pass it this weekend and ship it on to President Barack Obama. Not a single Republican voted for the bill.

The measure provides spending increases averaging about 10 percent to programs under immediate control of Congress. It comes on top of an infusion of cash to domestic agencies in February’s economic stimulus bill and a $410 billion measure in March that also bestowed budget increases well above inflation.

“When are we going to say, ‘Enough is enough?’” said House GOP Leader John Boehner of Ohio. “Let’s stop the madness.”

In fact, the gravy train may slow next year, assuming President Barack Obama follows through on his promise to bring unsustainable trillion-dollar-plus deficits under control. His budget director has ordered agencies to brace for a spending freeze as part of a midterm election-year push to rein in record budget shortfalls.

The spending bill blends increases for veterans’ programs, NASA and the FBI with a pay raise for federal workers and help for car dealers. It bundles together six of the 12 annual spending bills, capping a dysfunctional appropriations process in which House leaders blocked Republicans from debating key issues and Senate Republicans dragged out debates.

Just the $626 billion defense bill would remain. That’s being held back to serve as a vehicle to advance must-pass legislation such as the debt increase.

The measure also contains 5,224 so-called earmarks totaling $3.9 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a Washington-based watchdog group. Republicans and Democrats alike share in the largesse, which includes grants to local police departments, money road and bridge projects, and community and economic development grants.

Democrats made no apologies for all the spending increases, saying that domestic programs starved under eight years of President George W. Bush.

“I see these bills as an opportunity to reverse years of neglect — neglect to our roads and bridges, neglect to our lower income neighbors and friends, neglect to our education system, neglect to our veterans,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.

There’s plenty of cash remaining, however, from the stimulus bill. Republicans have urged a spending freeze for the approximately one-third of the budget passed via the appropriations bills.

For the 789 Chrysler dealers closed in June and more than 1,350 GM dealers expected to be shut down next year, the bill would offer an improved binding arbitration process to challenge the automakers’ decisions.

Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, protested a provision to let Amtrak passengers carry handguns in their checked baggage, provided the guns are unloaded and locked in a secure container. The policy would go into place within a year.

The bill also caps a heated debate over Obama’s order to close the Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba. It would permit detainees held at Guantanamo to be transferred to the United States to stand trial but not to be released.

Republicans also blasted moves by Democrats to drop several social policy provisions that conservatives had championed for years. A long-standing ban on the funding of abortion by the District of Columbia government would be overturned, igniting strong opposition from anti-abortion lawmakers. The bill also overturns a ban on federal money for needle exchange programs in the city, phases out a D.C. school voucher program favored by Republicans and opens the door for the city to permit medical marijuana.

It would also lift a nationwide ban on the use of federal funds for needle-exchange programs.

Federal workers would receive pay increases averaging 2 percent, with people in areas where it’s expensive to live receiving slightly more.

Republicans claimed the measure would mean a 33 percent increase for foreign aid and the State Department, but once emergency funding shuffles are taken into account, the increase is more like 10-15 percent.

The measure rejects most spending cuts suggested in May by Obama. A program that delivers heating subsidies for the poor would receive $5.1 billion, almost 40 percent more than Obama requested.

Republicans claimed the measure would mean a 33 percent increase for foreign aid and the State Department, but once war-related funding and emergency funding shuffles are taken into account, the increase is more like 10 to 15 percent. A Democratic press release actually claims a modest overall spending cut but then lists a host of sizable gains when describing specific programs.

The increases to foreign aid were not directed at individual countries as much as initiatives such as health programs, food aid and developmental assistance for poor countries, and funding for additional foreign service officers.

(This version CORRECTS billion to trillion in paragraph 5.)