In the News

The U.S. House of Representative, after a day of backstage maneuver and a Democratic revolt, approved a $1.1 trillion spending bill for Fiscal Year 2015 on a 219-206 vote late Thursday night.

A Washington congressman, set to retire after 20 years, served as the House’s presiding officer as he has over the years on many close votes.

Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., is a longtime buddy of House Speaker John Boehner, and expert at such maneuvers as keeping a vote open while House Republican leaders scramble to bring one or two members in line to eke out a narrow victory.

Over two decades, Hastings as a down-the-line supporter has been entrusted by House Republican leaders with the presiding officer’s chair, chairmanship of the House Ethics Committee, a key seat on the House Rules Committee, and chairmanship of the House Natural Resources Committee.

The spending bill passed over the opposition of both Tea Party Republicans and liberal Democrats including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Western Washington’s U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott,  Rick Larsen and Adam Smith.

The down-to-the-wire vote saw 162 Republicans and 57 Democrats vote for the spending bill, while 67 Republicans and 139 Democrats voted NO.

The spending bill saw an unusual alliance between President Obama and John Boehner, who denounced Obama all day and on weekends in boilerplate partisan tweets. He barely stopped Thursday night before resuming his anti-Obama cant.

The President backed the bill.  Obama and Vice President Joe Biden made phonecalls to wavering Democrats, lining up just enough to assure passage.  White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough was in the basement of the U.S. Capitol lobbying for the spending plan.

The Senate will debate the measure tomorrow.  “I’m upset with certain things in the bill,” said outgoing Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in a tweet.  “It’s not perfect. But a longer term funding is much better for our economy than a short-term funding.”

In order to avert a government shutdown, both House and Senate passed two-day spending bills on Thursday night.  This will allow the Senate time to complete debate.  Reid and Senate leaders support the legislation.  Liberal Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., is expected to argue against it.

The $1.1 trillion package was worked out in the Senate, with Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., as a major actor.

It granted several major Republican demands, notably relaxing provisions of the Dodd-Frank bill, the 2010 Wall Street reform measure, to allow greater derivative trading by banks.  Another provision, which aroused both liberal and Tea Party ire, would triple what wealthy givers can donate to the Republican and Democratic parties, and to party campaign committees.

Murray has, however, touted provisions of the bill.  It tightens regulation of oil trains, sets out $65 million for salmon recovery, keeps funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and holds off gutting environmental and renewable energy programs.

But Democrats in Washington’s House delegation said it went overboard.

“Return to government-backed gambling by Wall Street is a disgrace,” ex-Obama strategist David Axelrod tweeted.  He hastily added that the $1.1 trillion plan is better than a short-term spending bill, with Republicans allowed to write their own appropriations bill next year when they control both Houses of Congress.

Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., decried the last minute Wall Street and campaign spending provisions.  “Part of the reason Congress is held in such low esteem is that it does things like this,” Kilmer said.

And Rep. Suzan Del Bene, D-Wash., warned of the spending bill:  “It contained measures that will reopen the door to taxpayer funded bailouts of Wall Street and weaken campaign finance law to give even more influence in our elections to the special interests.

The spending bill funds all federal departments but one: the Department of Homeland Security is funded only until February.  Republicans want to find a way to thwart the immigration reform actions recently announced by President Obama.

“By the House’s actions, we are setting up a direct challenge to the President’s unilateral actions on immigration,” Boehner said in a statement.