Congress races to pass $1.3 trillion spending bill to avert government shutdown

Congress is racing to pass a $1.3 trillion spending bill to fund the federal government for the next six months and avoid a government shutdown, a move that would significantly increase military and non-defence funding.

In many ways, the bill could be seen as a loss for Donald Trump, whose proposals for severe cuts to funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, State Department and other federal agencies were largely ignored.

The bill also excludes some of Trump’s immigration-related funding requests. While the President at one point wanted the bill to allocate $25bn to fully fund construction of his long-promised border wall, negotiations to make that happen fell apart.

Instead, under the budget deal revealed on Wednesday, Mr Trump would get nearly $1.6bn for border security this year. More border patrol agents could be hired, but there would not be a significant increase in immigration agents working in the rest of the US.

When coupled with recently enacted tax cuts, the legislation is projected to lead to budget deficits of more than $800bn for this year, potentially creating problems for Republicans up for re-election in November.

In a 256-167 vote, the House of Representatives passed the measure, with majorites of both Democrats and Republicans backing the spending package. Ninety Republicans and 77 Democrats voted against it.

The bill now has to be approved by the Senate before it can head to the President’s desk to be signed by Mr Trump, who appears grudgingly willing to support the measure.

“Got $1.6 Billion to start Wall on Southern Border, rest will be forthcoming,” he wrote on Twitter. “Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment.”

Mr Trump must sign the bill by midnight on Friday night. If he doesn’t, the government will close.

The measure has faced opposition from both Democrats and Republicans.

Some Democrats have asserted that they will not pay for a wall that Mr Trump originally said would be paid for by Mexico. They also complained that in the rush to pass the measure, few if any legislators have had time to read through the 2,232-page bill to see what it actually contained.

Meanwhile, conservative Republicans have big problems with the deficit-spending.

The House’s Freedom Caucus, a group of about three dozen conservative hardliners, said they would not support the bill because it massively increases spending while not defunding Obamacare, Planned Parenthood and so-called sanctuary cities.

“You’re going to see lots of conservatives vote against it,” Republican Representative Jim Jordan, a caucus member, told Fox News in an interview.

Along with a $80bn increase in military spending, the largest in 15 years, the measure allocates money toward infrastructure improvements and fighting Russian election hacking.

In response to public outrage over mass shootings, including a massacre last month at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead, the bill contains modest improvements to background checks for gun sales and grants to help schools prevent gun violence.

However, these provisions still far short of the broader measures that Democrats say are needed to end the crisis.