WASHINGTON — The House late Thursday passed a spending bill known as the "cromnibus" that would fund most federal government agencies through the end of the federal fiscal year.
The legislation now heads to the Senate. In order to give the Senate time to pass the bill, both chambers of Congress passed a resolution, which President Obama has signed, to extend through Saturday the continuing resolution that has been funding federal government programs and services at the rate for the previous fiscal year. The CR originally funded the government through Thursday.
The cromnibus passed the House by a vote of 219-206. There were 162 Republicans and 57 Democrats that voted for the measure, and there were 67 Republicans and 139 Democrats that voted against it.
The prospects for the bill's passage looked shaky earlier on Thursday, when a procedural vote related to the bill barely passed. Many Democrats, including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, opposed the bill because it includes provisions that would roll back the Dodd-Frank Act's prohibition on banks keeping certain swaps trading in units backed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and would increase the limit on the amounts that individuals can donate to national political party committees. Some House Republicans opposed the bill because it would not defund President Obama's executive action on immigration.
The Obama administration said in a statement that it supported House passage of the bill but opposed the Dodd-Frank change and increase in political contribution limits.
The spending bill would provide more than $1 trillion in discretionary spending. It would fund most federal departments and agencies through Sept. 30, 2015, the end of the fiscal year, but would only fund the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 27, 2015. It would reduce the funding level for the Internal Revenue Service but increase the funding level for the Securities and Exchange Commission in fiscal 2015.
The legislation would also reduce funding for several popular grant programs in fiscal 2015. The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, or TIGER, program - which provides grants to state and local governments for transportation projects - would receive $100 million less than in fiscal 2014. The Community Development Block Grant Program -whose grants can be used for affordable housing, economic development and social services - would be funded at a level that is $30 million below the enacted level for the previous year. And the Home Investment Partnerships Program, which also provides grants for affordable housing, would receive $100 million less than its fiscal 2014 enacted level.
The federal payments in lieu of taxes program would receive $372 million under the legislation and would receive additional funds under a defense bill. The federal government makes PILT payments to local governments to help offset the losses in their property tax revenues that occur because of the presence of federal lands in their jurisdictions.
The crominbus would also extend the ban on taxing consumer Internet access through the rest of the fiscal year.
