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Groton Daily Independent
Friday, July 28, 2017 ~ Vol. 25 - No. 028 ~ 20 of 54
“Nobody would know it from the President’s hysterical rhetoric, but there are already 700 miles of fence down there on the border — vehicular fencing, pedestrian fencing,” said Rep. David Price, D-N.C. “I know about it because most of that fencing was built when I was chairman of the homeland security appropria- tions subcommittee.”
At issue are the spending bills passed by Congress each year to fund the day-to-day operations of federal agencies. Trump is pushing for a sweeping increase for the Pentagon and commensurate cuts of more than $50 billion, or 10 percent, from domestic agencies and foreign aid. House Republicans are responding by adding even more for defense but have signi cantly scaled back Trump’s cuts to domestic programs like community development grants and medical research.
GOP leaders had hoped to advance a broader “omnibus” package that would have included each of the 12 individual spending measures. But the GOP rank and le balked, so Republicans devised a smaller bill anchored by the Pentagon budget, funding for veterans programs, and money for the wall.
But most of the sweeping Pentagon increases — which total about $60 billion above current levels and almost $30 billion higher than Trump’s budget — would evaporate next year unless there’s a bipartisan agreement to raise budget “caps” set by a 2011 budget pact. A two-year agreement that eased those “sequestration” spending limits expires in September.
Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate want additional funding for domestic programs. Demo- crats have lots of leverage because their votes are needed to pass the funding measures. For now, the Senate is working in a bipartisan fashion on a sharply different set of bills that, on average, are frozen at current levels.
Earlier this year, Congress and Trump came together on spending bills for the current budget year that largely stuck to work done last year under former President Barack Obama. Trump reluctantly signed a $1.2 trillion catchall spending bill in May after his demand for border wall money looked like it would stall the measure.
The current bill, however, re ects the changed balance of power in GOP-controlled Washington. Weapons procurement is a top priority, including two additional littoral combat ships above Trump’s request and 14 unrequested next-generation F-35 ghters.
Democrats said the big gains for now are illusory since automatic budget cuts known as sequestration remain in place.
“We do not give certainty to our defense or con dence to our troops when we legislate with phony numbers, when we refuse to make honest choices about our Defense budget,” said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. “Instead of giving certainty to our heroes in uniform, this bill would breach the sequester spending limit by more than $70 billion, forcing a mandatory 13 percent cut to all defense accounts.”
GOP dealt stiff blow in Senate’s bid to repeal ‘Obamacare’ By ERICA WERNER and ALAN FRAM, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dealing a serious blow to President Donald Trump’s agenda, the Senate early Fri- day rejected a measure to repeal parts of former President Barack Obama’s health care law after a night of high suspense in the U.S. Capitol.
Unable to pass even a so-called “skinny repeal,” it was unclear if Senate Republicans could advance any health bill despite seven years of promises to repeal “Obamacare.”
“This is clearly a disappointing moment,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “I regret that our efforts were not enough, this time.”
“It’s time to move on,” he said.
McConnell put the health bill on hold and announced that the Senate would move onto other legislation next week.
Trump responded on Twitter: “3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down. As I said from the beginning, let ObamaCare implode, then deal. Watch!”