Boehner says the deal isn't perfect, but it advances conservative policy. | AP Photo
After a tumultuous and politically divisive year, the House ended
2013 on a rare bipartisan note by passing a budget deal supported by a
nearly equal number of Republicans and Democrats.
The chamber
voted 332-94 to
approve the two-year budget deal crafted by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.). The legislation won the support of 169
Republicans and 163 Democrats. It now heads to the Senate, where it will
likely pass next week. President Barack Obama signaled he would sign
the bill into law.
In an interview after the vote, Ryan said the vote
total was “much higher than I expected,” and that “we’re getting a
little bit of integrity back into the system.”
(
Also on POLITICO: Inside the budget agreement)
“I think people are hungry to get things done around here,” Ryan
said. “That’s what I got, I got so many of my colleagues saying thank
you for bringing some normalcy back to this place. So I’m very pleased
about that.”
The deal sets discretionary spending at $1.012 trillion for the
current fiscal year — a level that will rise to $1.014 trillion in
fiscal 2015 — and replaces sequester cuts slated to take effect in
January with more targeted spending cuts. Absent the agreement,
discretionary spending would decline to $967 billion early next year
with a large proportion of the cuts hitting the Pentagon.
The agreement, which includes $23 billion in net deficit reduction,
doesn’t extend expanded unemployment benefits that expire at the end of
December. It also does nothing about the debt ceiling, which must be
addressed sometime in the spring.
Still, the budget is a breakthrough for a Congress frozen by partisan
fiscal fights for the past few years. In a practical sense, the budget
will help lessen the chance of a government shutdown in mid January and
again in October, just before the 2014 midterm elections.
(
Also on POLITICO: Budget deal rolls back spending)
Neither party appears to be jumping for joy over the agreement. House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told Democrats in a closed
meeting to “embrace the suck” of this bill, adding that Congress needs
“to get this off the table so we can go forward.”
Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) told reporters Thursday morning that
the agreement is “not everything that we wanted, but it advances
conservative policy and moves us in the right direction.”
Both parties believe that the budget helps them politically. With the
threat of a government shutdown mostly removed, Republicans think they
can keep focus on the Affordable Care Act, which has had a troubled roll
out. Democrats are already laying the groundwork to use January to
pressure Republicans to extend emergency jobless benefits, which expire
near the end of December. And Democrats are sure to pressure Republicans
in 2014 to vote on immigration reform, which has been long stalled in
the House.
(
WATCH: Budget deal by the numbers)
The bill marks a new stage in Ryan’s career on Capitol Hill. Long a
partisan warrior who wrote budgets that made conservatives’ mouth water,
Ryan has now cut a bipartisan deal that will shave the deficit by $23
billion.
The House was scheduled to wrap up its legislative year Friday, but
finished its work Thursday instead. The chamber also passed a one-month
extension of current farm policy, and cleared the National Defense
Authorization Act.
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