House Passes HR 3354 – FY 2018 Spending

This afternoon the House passed a much-amended HR 3354 by a very partisan 211 to 198 vote. The vote was closer than the party membership numbers would indicate in part because of the 14 Republicans that voted Nay, but also because of the 25 members (16 Republicans and 9 Democrats) that did not vote (probably due to early flight times for their weekends at home).

The large ‘Nay’ vote just about guarantees that the Senate will not take up this version of the bill. I expect that we will see a Senate bill omnibus bill introduced (or possibly a substitute language amendment to this bill) that will then be amended in a lengthy floor process. The resulting bill will be harder to reconcile with this House passed measure in a form that both houses will be able to pass. Fortunately, we have until December 8^th.

NOTE: Just a reminder, the three amendments that I had identified as being of potential specific interest to readers of this blog were all approved early in the amendment process.