The Senate on Wednesday voted 64 to 36 to pass a House-Senate budget deal that will set the stage for the appropriations committees to get allocations by the end of this week and to prepare a government funding bill by January 15. After January 15, the current continuing resolution expires. Nine Republicans joined all Democrats in approving the measure. The House already passed the budget last week, so the measure is being sent to President Obama for his signature before he leaves this weekend to spend the holidays in Hawaii.
The measure provides a blueprint for funding the government through 2015 and avoids another possible government shutdown if the temporary continuing resolution had expired. However, it does not address the need to raise the debt limit once again in late February or early March, just months before midterm congressional elections. The national debt stands now at $17.2 trillion. Enforcement of the debt limit has been suspended until February 7, when Treasury Secretary Jack Lew has said he will have about a month before he starts running out of cash to pay the country’s bills.
The Senate rushed to finish work on the measure as they prepare to leave town this week for a three-week Christmas recess. The agreement finishes nearly three years of battling over agency budgets, which ultimately led to a government shutdown for 16 days in October. The agreement rolls back spending cuts known as the sequester over the next two years, restoring billions of dollars for domestic programs.
The $62 billion cost will be covered by $85 billion in new policies to be phased in over the next decade, including new fees, such as increasing security fees paid by airline passengers; higher premiums for federal insurance for private pensions; reduced payments to student-loan debt collectors, not completely refilling the nation’s petroleum reserves, and pension reductions for new federal employees and uninjured military retirees under 62, among other strategies. The deal does not raise taxes or reduce Medicare benefits.
Leaders of the congressional spending committee’ immediately began working on 2014 appropriations to distribute about $45 billion to federal agencies. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara A. Mikulski (D-MD) was optimistic that she and her house counterpart Harold Rogers (R-KY) could deliver an omnibus spending bill to the President’s desk by January 15.
