HR 4366 Passed in Senate – Consolidated Appropriations Act

Yesterday, the Senate completed action on HR 4366, the Consolidated Appropriations Act. After adopting the substitute language for the House bill, the Senate voted 82 to 15 to pass the amended legislation. The final bill includes the Senate version of original Military Construction spending bill (S 2127), and also the Senate’s ARD spending (S 2131) and THUD spending ( 2437) bills. Earlier in the day, the Senate rejected four additional amendments (none of specific interest here) by recorded votes.

The bill now goes back to the House for approval of the changes made by the Senate. There is no chance that that will occur, the House will insist on their version of the bill, and it will be referred to a conference committee to work out a version of the bill that could pass in both chambers. In a good year, this behind-closed-doors work takes weeks of political give and take, and a compromise is reached that no one totally likes and, it is presented to the two bodies. After much speechifying and objection, the final bill is passed and the President signs the legislation.

Depending on who gets appointed to the Conference Committee (In the House, Republicans by the Speaker, Democrats by the Minority Leader) this conference could end up being very acrimonious. There is a very real possibility that intransigent Republican negotiators could insist on their spending levels and policy riders and kill any possibility of a compromise. If a compromise bill is crafted, it will be rejected by a significant number of Republicans in the House and the bill will require at least an equal number Democrats to vote for the bill if it is to pass. The last time a spending bill required bipartisan support to pass (back at the end of September, remember that?) the Speaker lost his job, and the House was plunged into Speaker Chaos 2.0.

Oh, and remember November 17^th is the date currently set by which all twelve spending bills (not just these three) have to be signed by the President to keep the government open. This bill (forget the other nine) is unlikely to be out of conference by that date, much less signed by the President. So, we will almost certainly see a continuing resolution fight before that date.