index

Late on Thursday night, the House of Representatives in close vote barley passed a $1.1trillion spending bill, and with its passage the bill moves on to the Senate.

The Washington Post reported the House quietly passed another funding extension by unanimous consent on Friday afternoon to give senators even more time to work through procedural rules, debate and then vote on the spending bill.

Senators could ignore the proposed extension and rush to finish the spending bill Friday night, then send it to President Obama for his signature. But debate also could spill into next week if a mix of conservatives and liberals who oppose parts of the omnibus package choose to fight.

Unlike last year where Republicans led by Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, blocked passage of a spending bill which eventually led to a government shutdown. This time it was Democrats who spoke out against the legislation, led by House Democratic minority leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senator Elizabeth Warren.

The recent passed spending bill made for strange bedfellows, as both Cruz and Warren spoke out against passage of this legislation, but for different reasons.

Cruz and a few other Republican Senators wanted to force a vote on defunding parts of the budget tied to funding any part of President Obama’s action on immigration.

Warren was upset about any relaxing of regulation of investments known as derivatives. ABC News reported the provision is part of a broader Republican drive to erode the Dodd-Frank financial regulation law, which Congress enacted in 2010 to try to tighten regulation and prevent another crisis. Republicans have denounced Dodd-Frank as an excessive expansion of regulatory authority that’s stifling the competitiveness of the U.S. financial industry.

Republican feel the restrictions on derivatives have hurt small regional banks which help fund many small businesses, and the enacting of Dodd-Frank has prevent many of the small businesses hit hard by the financial crisis of 2008 from bouncing back.

The passage of the House spending bill has made for strange alliances as incoming Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and current Majority Leader Harry Reid have aligned together to gather the necessary votes to ensure its passage.

President Obama spent many hours calling Congressional Democrats urging them to support the bill, but has faced stiff opposition from fellow Democrats.

Commenting today the president stated, “This, by definition, was a compromise bill.  This is what’s produced when we have the divided government that the American people voted for.  There are a bunch of provisions in this bill that I really do not like.  On the other hand, there are provisions in this bill and the basic funding within this bill that allows us to make sure that we continue on the progress in providing health insurance to all Americans; make sure that we continue with our efforts to combat climate change; that we’re able to expand early childhood education that is making a meaningful difference in communities all across the country; that allows us to expand our manufacturing hubs that are contributing to the growth of jobs and the progress that we’ve seen in our economy over the last couple of years.”

All the political posturing by Cruz and Warren could potentially lay the ground work for each of their presidential ambitions in 2016, as this just sets the stage as both appeal to the base of their respective parties.

The House passed funding extensions to give the Senate a bit more time to work through procedural rules and debate the spending bill which they have until Wednesday to pass the $1.1 trillion dollar spending bill before the government shuts down.

Barring any kind of procedural stoppage it looks like the spending bill will just barely make it over the finish line, but if passed the president stated he will sign it.