Wintry mix spreads across Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

WASHINGTON (AP) -  The House and Senate have quickly approved
interim spending that avoids a government shutdown after President
Barack Obama and congressional leaders reached a $38 billion
spending cut agreement.


      The interim bill is necessary so broader legislation can be
finalized.

      Obama hailed the deal as "the biggest annual spending cut in
history." House Speaker John Boehner said that over the next
decade it would cut government spending by $500 billion -- and won
an ovation from his rank and file, Tea Party adherents among them.

      "This is historic, what we've done," agreed Senate Majority
Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., the third man involved in negotiations
that ratified a new era of divided government.


      They announced the agreement less than an hour before government
funding was due to run out, instantly turning hundreds of thousands
of furlough notices for federal workers into historical relics.


      The shutdown would have closed national parks, tax-season help
lines and other popular services, though the military would have
stayed on duty and other essential efforts such as air traffic
control would have continued in effect.


      On side issues -- "riders," the negotiators called them -- the
Democrats and the White House rebuffed numerous Republican attempts
to curtail the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency.


      They also sidetracked their demand to deny federal funds to
Planned Parenthood. Under the accord, the issue will come to a vote
in the Senate under terms guaranteed to end in its defeat.


      Anti-abortion lawmakers succeeded in winning a provision to ban
the use of federal or local government funds to pay for abortions
in the District of Columbia.


      One of Boehner's priorities, a program that lets District of
Columbia students use federally funded vouchers to attend private
schools, was included.


      In addition, the Senate will vote on proposals to deny federal
funding to implement the year-old health care law. It is certain to
fall short of the required 60 votes but will place Democrats on the
record.


      The long-term deal in hand, lawmakers raced to pass an interim
measure to prevent a shutdown, however brief, and keep the federal
machinery running for the next several days. The Senate acted
within minutes, and the House followed suit shortly after. 


White
House Budget Director Jacob Lew issued a directive saying that in
view of the agreement, "agencies are instructed to continue their
normal operations."


      The deal came together after six grueling weeks and an outbreak
of budget brinksmanship over the past few days as the two sides
sought to squeeze every drop of advantage in private talks.


      In one dramatic moment, Obama called Boehner on Friday morning
after learning that the contours of the emerging deal they had
reached with Reid in the Oval Office the night before had not been
reflected in the predawn staff negotiations. The White House was
baffled. The whole package was in peril of falling part.


      According to a senior administration official, Obama told
Boehner that they were the two most consequential leaders in the
United States government and. that if they had any hope of keeping
the government open, their discussions had to be honored and could
not altered by staff. The official described the scene on condition
of anonymity to reveal behind-the-scenes negotiations.


      Despite the accomplishment, officials noted it marked only a
first step. Republicans intend to pass a 2012 budget through the
House next week that calls for sweeping changes in Medicare and
Medicaid and would cut domestic programs deeply in an attempt to
gain control over soaring deficits.


      And the Treasury has told Congress it must vote to raise the
debt limit by summer -- a request that Republicans hope to use to
force Obama to accept long-term deficit-reduction measures.


      "We know the whole world is watching us today," Reid said
earlier in a day that produced incendiary, campaign style rhetoric
as well as intense negotiation.


      Reid, Obama and Boehner all agreed a shutdown posed risks to an
economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.


      But there were disagreements aplenty among the principal players
in an early test of divided government -- Obama in the White House,
fellow Democrats in control in the Senate and a new, Tea
Party-flavored Republican majority in the House.


      "Republican leaders in the House have only a few hours left to
look in the mirror, snap out of it and realize how positively
shameful that would be," Reid said at one point, accusing
Republicans of risking a shutdown to pursue a radical social
agenda.


      For much of the day, Reid and Boehner disagreed about what the
disagreement was about.


      Reid said there had been an agreement at a White House meeting
Thursday night to cut spending by about $38 billion. He said
Republicans also were demanding unspecified cuts in health services
for lower-income women that were unacceptable to Democrats.


      "Republicans want to shut down our nation's government because
they want to make it harder to get cancer screenings," he said.
"They want to throw women under the bus."


      Boehner said repeatedly that wasn't the case -- it was spending
cuts that divided two sides.


      "Most of the policy issues have been dealt with, and the big
fight is about spending," he said. "When will the White House and
when will Senate Democrats get serious about cutting federal
spending?"


      By midday Friday, 12 hours before the funding would run out,
most federal employees had been told whether they had been deemed
essential or would be temporarily laid off in the event of a
shutdown.


      Obama canceled a Friday trip to Indianapolis -- and a weekend
family visit to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia -- and kept in
touch with both Boehner and Reid.


      The standoff began several weeks ago, when the new Republican
majority in the House passed legislation to cut $61 billion from
federal spending and place numerous curbs on the government.


      In the weeks since, the two sides have alternately negotiated
and taken time out to pass interim measures.


      Originally, Republicans wanted to ban federal funds for Planned
Parenthood, a health care services provider that is also the
nation's largest provider of abortions.


      Federal funds may not be used to pay for abortions except in
strictly regulated cases, but supporters of the ban said cutting
off government funds for the organization -- currently about $330
million a year -- would make it harder for it to use its own money
for the same purpose.


      Democrats rejected the proposal in private talks. Officials in
both parties said Republicans returned earlier in the week with a
proposal to distribute federal funds for family planning and
related health services to the states, rather than directly to
Planned Parenthood and other organizations.


      Democrats said they rejected that proposal, as well, and then
refused to agree to allow a separate Senate vote on the issue as
part of debate over any compromise bill.


      Instead, they launched a sustained campaign at both ends of the
Capitol to criticize Republicans.


      "We'll not allow them to use women as pawns," said Sen. Patty
Murray, a fourth-term lawmaker from Washington who doubles as head
of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.


      For Congress and Obama there are even tougher struggles still
ahead -- over a Republican budget that would remake entire federal
programs, and a vote to raise the nation's debt limit.

      Associated Press writers Donna Cassata, Andrew Taylor, Alan
Fram, Julie Pace and Ben Feller contributed to this report.
      
      

Gallery

Shutdown nears; furloughs prepared

Dayton optimistic but still plans for possible government shutdown

Minnesota reps already pointing fingers over possible shutdown

Congressional expert weighs in on shutdown negotiations

Nat'l Parks face federal shutdown on Civil War eve

Politics and Government News

David Espo

Author

Congress will vote on a
stopgap funding bill to keep the government running until Thursday, and the
longer budget plan, which cuts $39 billion from the budget, will be voted on sometime next week. House Speaker John Boehner called it the "largest real-dollar spending cut in American
history."

Charles Dharapak/ASSOCIATED PRESS

John Boehner,  Eric Cantor, Mary Bono Mack

'Historic' deal averts government shutdown

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox