Update to Negotiators Agree To Omnibus Spending Bill, Must Be Approved By Friday To Avoid Government Shutdown.
The Hill reports, Senate passes $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package:
The Senate on Thursday voted to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus package that funds the federal government through September, provides Ukraine with $45 billion in military and economic aid and sets aside $38 billion for emergency disaster assistance.
It also includes reforms to the Electoral Count Act in response to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, clarifying that the vice president does not have the power to overturn the results of a presidential election.
More: Senate GOP rebukes Trump with Electoral Count Act:
Eighteen Senate Republican rebuked former President Trump this week by voting to clarify that the vice president does not have the power to overturn a presidential election as Trump pressured then-Vice President Mike Pence to do on Jan. 6, 2021.
And several other Republicans, who didn’t vote for the spending package, which included the electoral count reforms, such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), previously expressed support for changes to the law to make it tougher to object to the Electoral College’s vote.
GOP senators ignored Trump’s argument posted on Truth Social, his social media platform, that the 1887 Electoral Count Act should be left the way it is “in case of Fraud.”
Republican senators across the political spectrum said they want to slam the door on the notation that Pence had the authority to throw out a state’s slate of electors, which could open the door for future vice presidents to attempt to interfere with the Electoral College’s vote.
[T]he legislation states the vice president has solely a ministerial role in presiding over the joint session of Congress when lawmakers certify the results of the Electoral College.
And it raises the threshold to lodge an objection to a slate of electors to one-fifth of the House and one fifth of the Senate — limiting the ability of one or a few disgruntled lawmakers from drawing the chambers into extended debate over the results.
It would also provide for expedited judicial review of legal challenges to slates of electors, putting the matter before a three-judge panel and allow direct appeal to the Supreme Court.
[T]he reforms to the Electoral Count Act are paired with the Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which is intended to ensure an orderly transfer of power after a presidential election — a reform aimed at Trump’s refusal to acknowledge Biden as the victor of the 2020 election.
https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1605956589193531393?cxt=HHwWgsCg-crAwMksAAAA
The package passed with a large bipartisan majority, 68-29, wrapping up the Senate’s legislative business in the 117th Congress a few days before Christmas.
The omnibus bill represents one of several major bipartisan legislation accomplishments of President Biden’s first two years in office, along with the $1 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, to address gun violence; and the $280 billion Chips and Science Act, to improve U.S. competitiveness with China.
It spends $858 billion on defense programs, a 9.7 percent increase, and $772.5 billion on nondefense, non-veterans-related programs, representing a 5.5 percent increase.
It also includes $118.7 billion for Veterans Affairs medical care, a 22 percent increase, and $59 billion for programs authorized by the bipartisan infrastructure bill, which Congress passed last year.
It provides $19.8 billion to arm and equip Ukrainian force and NATO allies and $12.9 billion to stabilize the Ukrainian economy and make up for shortfalls. Passage came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addressed a joint session of Congress to ask for continued American support.
The House is expected to take up the legislation as soon as Thursday evening and vote to send it to Biden’s desk before government funding runs out at the end of Friday.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) hailed the bill as a victory for Republicans because it increased defense spending above the rate of inflation while boosting nondefense, non-veterans spending by less than inflation.
“The world’s greatest military will get the funding increase that it needs, outpacing inflation. Meanwhile, nondefense, non-veterans spending will come in below the rate of inflation, for a real-dollar cut,” McConnell said on the Senate floor, touting GOP wins in the bill. [Ebeneezer Scrooge still lives!]
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) warned that failing to pass the bill would have risked a freeze of federal funding levels well into 2023 or even a government shutdown.
“To go to a [continuing resolution] or even worse, a government shutdown, would be a huge disservice at any time, and particularly at holiday season, to the American people,” he said.
The package left some key Democratic priorities on the cutting room floor, including a proposal to extend the enhanced Child Tax Credit [opposed by Sen. “Maserati” Manchin], and the SAFE Banking Act which would prohibit federal regulators from penalizing financial institutions that do business with legitimate cannabis-related businesses.
But Democrats also got many priorities included that they can tout to constituents back home, such as a $500 increase for Pell Grant awards, the largest increase in over a decade.
Republicans, in turn, got a $275 million cut to the IRS’s budget and language prohibiting the transfer of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, to the United States. [Twisted priorities.]
Senators had hoped to wrap up the bill Wednesday or early Thursday so they could catch their flights home for the Christmas break before a massive winter storm paralyzed airports across the nation.
But the omnibus stalled Wednesday and appeared to be in danger of derailing completely when Schumer couldn’t strike a deal with Republicans on which amendments to vote on.
He had to find a way to get around an amendment sponsored by [Coup Plotter] Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) that would have cut funding for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas’s office unless the Biden administration reinstated the Trump-era Title 42 policy, which blocks migrants from entering the country on asylum claims.
Lee’s amendment got a boost Wednesday when the Senate parliamentarian ruled it could be added to the omnibus with a simple-majority vote, instead of having to clear the 60-vote threshold that applies to many amendments.
Democrats feared Lee’s amendment could pick up the support of a few centrists in their caucus, which would have allowed it to pass and endanger the chances of passing the omnibus through the House, where progressive Democrats oppose keeping Title 42 in place.
Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) stepped in to break the partisan logjam Thursday morning by offering her own side-by-side amendment to boost funding for border security and extend Title 42 until the Biden administration puts in place “a proper plan” to handle the expected deluge of migrants once the health restriction is lifted.
“Enough is enough. Stop using the border as a political tool. We are here to do our job. We must fund the government and we must solve our border crisis,” she said on the floor.
It gave centrist Democrats enough political cover to agree to a vote on Lee’s amendment, knowing they had an alternative Title 42 proposal to support instead.
Lee slammed Sinema’s amendment as “a ruse designed to provide political cover for people who recognize the crisis on the border and want to appear to be doing something about it.” [Look in the mirror, Coup Plotter.]
It only got 10 votes but gave crucial cover to several Democrats facing competitive races in 2024: Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), who co-sponsored the proposal, Sen. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Sen. Jacky Rosen (Nev.).
Sinema also voted for the measure, along with Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who is working with her on immigration reform legislation, and Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.).
After that vote, Lee’s amendment failed on a straight party-line vote of 47-50. Three GOP senators missed the votes.
Passage of the omnibus finishes Congress’s work on the 12 annual spending bills in one fell swoop after the Senate failed to pass a single regular appropriations bill before Thursday, well past the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.
A large group of Senate Republicans ended up voting for the final package, but many of them expressed frustration that they had to vote on all the spending bills balled up in one package with only a couple of days to review the 4,155-page omnibus.
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The new Electoral Count Reform will very likely require some conforming language and procedure changes in AZ statutes. I can foresee some angry MAGAs left out in the cold on that bill. The whole Dem Caucus and a few reasonable conservatives, who actually want democracy to work, will pass it to sound of gnashy fascy teeth…