Congress Scrambles for Last-Minute Funding Bill

113th Congress fittingly concluding with partisan brinksmanship By Carl Hulse Good Thursday morning from Washington where former Vice President Dick Cheney said the C.I.A. cant be kissing terrorists on the cheek during questioning Congress is going down to the wire with its spending bill and First Draft tries to burst the bubble on a catchphrase most of America has never heard of: Cromnibus." The 113th Congress is fittingly concluding with partisan brinksmanship and one last mad scramble for votes to pass a $1.1 trillion spending package that will fund the government through September. Despite last-minute flare-ups Republican officials remained confident the House would approve the measure on Thursday averting a government shutdown. But House Democrats were unhappy about the last-minute addition of policy provisions related to party fund-raising and Wall Street regulation and they threatened to withhold needed votes unless changes were made. Some Republicans remained disgruntled that their party wasnt doing more to challenge President Obama over his immigration policy. As a result backers of the measure had to work hard to secure the support to put it over the top. Leadership officials said they doubted the dissent was enough to derail the 1600-page bill. They also noted that the measure was negotiated between House Republicans and Senate Democrats implying that Democrats would erase hard-won funding victories if they brought the measure down and left the spending decisions to the new Republican Congress next year. But it is the same Congress that stumbled into a government shutdown last year so a messy fiscal pileup two weeks before Christmas is not out of the question. If the spending measure falls short in the House Republicans were preparing to pass a measure continuing funding into early next year. In the Senate passage of the spending plan was assured if it could clear the House though senators would have to stick around a few more days to finish up all their business. Buckle up. White House Questions if G.O.P. Would Defund Border Security While the catch-all spending bill funds almost all of the federal government through Sept. 30 there is one agency treated differently: the Department of Homeland Security. Hoping to maintain leverage over President Obama and his disputed immigration policy Republicans agreed only to provide money through February while they grapple with how to retaliate. But people have begun to wonder how much leverage this actually provides. Would Republicans be willing to shut down the department come March if they remain at odds with the administration? That would mean that Republicans angry over new benefits for immigrants living in the country illegally would respond by closing down the agency that provides border security to prevent more immigrants from entering illegally. Josh Earnest the White House spokesman said on Wednesday that he figured as much.

I would be surprised if Republicans take the position that they are going to withhold funding from border security from people who are conducting criminal background checks from other elements of our federal government that are critical to homeland security just in protest over the president taking an executive action" he told reporters.