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NATION/WORLD
East Oregonian
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Pushing for victories, Trump
No shutdown: $1.1 trillion
agreement shows Dems’ clout shows disconnect with House GOP
WASHINGTON (AP) —
Erasing the threat of a disrup-
tive government shutdown,
the White House and top
lawmakers endorsed a $1.1
trillion spending bill Monday
to carry the nation through
September, an agreement
underscoring that Democrats
retain considerable clout in
Donald Trump’s turbulent
presidency.
Negotiators released the
1,665-page bill after Repub-
licans dropped numerous
demands on the environment,
Obama-era financial regula-
tions and abortion in marathon
sessions over the weekend.
The bill is slated for a House
vote on Wednesday, with a
Senate vote ahead of a Friday
midnight deadline.
“We thought we had the
upper hand because a govern-
ment shutdown would be on
their shoulders, and we made
that clear,” Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer,
D-N.Y., said in an interview.
“We knew that if we didn’t
push things too far we could
get a good deal that could
make us happy and that’s what
happened.”
Trump and the White
House had made concessions
last week when the president
relented on his demand that
the measure include a $1.4
billion down payment for
his proposed wall along the
U.S.-Mexico border. Trump
repeatedly insisted during
the election campaign that
Mexico would pay for the
wall, a claim Mexican officials
have vigorously rejected.
Congressional Republi-
cans and Democrats ignored
Trump’s proposal to cut
billions of dollars from
domestic programs.
Democrats boasted of
money for foreign assistance
and cash-strapped Puerto Rico
while winning funding for
favored programs like transit
projects and grants for first
responders. They also defied
Trump on a bid to punish
“sanctuary cities” and on
immigration enforcement.
The White House and
some top GOP allies declared
victory anyway, citing billions
of dollars more for the mili-
tary. Trump won a $15 billion
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
In this Thursday photo, Senate Minority Leader Chuck
Schumer, of N.Y., speaks to reporters during a news
conference on Capitol Hill in Washington.
down payment on his request
to strengthen the military,
though that also fell short of
what he requested.
Vice President Mike Pence
told CBS News Monday that
the administration “couldn’t
be more pleased” and called
the agreement it a “budget
deal that’s a bipartisan win for
the American people.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan,
R-Wis., praised the bill as
well, saying it “acts on Pres-
ident Trump’s commitment
to rebuild our military for the
21st century and bolster our
nation’s border security to
protect our homeland.”
Longstanding conservative
resistance to big spending
bills requires the party to seek
Democratic votes to pass
spending bills despite the
Republican majorities both
houses of Congress. That made
the party out of power a major
player in the negotiations. The
talks were also spurred by a
strong Republican desire to
complete unfinished business
well into the fiscal year and
move on to health care repeal
and tax overhaul, both of
which are iffy propositions.
“If nothing else, it does
allow the president to have at
least one major success this
week, which is great,” said
White House budget director
Mick Mulvaney. “He’s going
to sign his first substantive
piece of legislation this
week, and it’s going to make
dramatic increases in funding
to his priorities.”
Ryan’s office peppered
reporters’ inboxes with news
releases cheerleading for the
bill and GOP-won provisions
such as extending a private
school vouchers program
for students in Washington,
D.C.’s troubled school system
through 2019.
Democrats had sought addi-
tional spending for nondefense
accounts to match Pentagon
increases above spending
caps set by a 2015 budget pact
negotiated with former Pres-
ident Barack Obama. They
were forced to settle for far less
with domestic increases in the
1 percent range.
The measure funds the
remainder of the 2017 budget
year, through Sept. 30. Capitol
Hill Republicans joined
Democrats in supporting
increases for popular domestic
programs such as medical
research at the National Insti-
tutes of Health, with Sen. Roy
Blunt, R-Mo., for instance,
using his powerful post on the
Appropriations panel to take
the lead on a 40 percent boost
in research on Alzheimer’s
disease.
Democrats stressed their
efforts to protect the Envi-
ronmental Protection Agency,
infrastructure grants and
foreign aid. Sen. Joe Manchin,
D-W.Va., led the fight for a $1.3
billion provision to preserve
health benefits for more than
22,000 retired coal miners and
their families, while top House
Democrat Nancy Pelosi
provided the muscle behind
a hard-won effort to give the
cash-strapped government of
Puerto Rico $295 million to
ease its Medicaid burden.
WASHINGTON (AP)
— President Donald Trump
could be on the verge of
marking two significant
legislative accomplishments
at the start of his presidency.
Yet he’s displayed a curious
disconnect with Repub-
licans on Capitol Hill,
raising questions about how
deeply he is delving into
the specifics of legislative
sausage-making.
In interviews and Tweets,
Trump has been notably
off-topic and off-message
about the state of affairs in
Congress.
His recent description of
the health care bill suggested
he was unfamiliar with how
the bill addresses coverage
for people with pre-existing
conditions. Congressional
leaders and White House
aides have struggled to
agree on the level of opti-
mism and timing for a vote.
During tense budget
negotiations last week,
Trump was sounding off
about issues — health care
for miners and a finance
package for Puerto Rico —
that were not major points
of contention in the deal,
which came to together
Sunday.
It all added up to a
portrait of a president who,
even while he’s eager for
legislative victories, pays
little attention to the nitty-
gritty details that can make
or break them on Capitol
Hill.
The White House on
Monday
struggled
to
explain the president’s
assertion that the health care
bill guaranteed coverage for
people pre-existing condi-
tions.
“Pre-existing
condi-
tions are in the bill. And I
mandate it. I said, ‘Has to
be,’” Trump said Sunday on
CBS News.
The legislation being
considered
by
House
Republicans, in fact, does
“Coverage of
pre-existing
conditions is
at the core.”
— Sean Spicer,
White House spokesman
not require such coverage.
It would allow states to
opt out of the requirement
under certain circumstances
— a concession that won
over conservatives while
alienating some moderates.
Trump also asserted the
bill allows insurance sales
across states lines, some-
thing that’s not in the bill at
all.
White House spokesman
Sean Spicer said that
ensuring “coverage of
pre-existing conditions is
at the core” of the effort to
repeal and replace the law.
“So that is something that he
is ensured is in the current
bill and we’ll continue to
push for to make sure that
coming out of the Senate
and going to conference it’s
there as well.”
The American Medical
Association has said the
Republican safeguards for
patients with pre-existing
conditions “may be illu-
sory.”
Trump told Bloomberg
News in an interview on
Monday that the bill was
“not in its final form right
now” and predicted it would
be “every bit as good on
pre-existing conditions as
Obamacare.”
House
Republican
leaders are hopeful for a
vote on the health care plan
ahead of a weeklong recess
next week. But Spicer
sought to tamp down expec-
tations on Monday, telling
reporters that “we’re not
there yet,” even though the
administration is “getting
closer and closer every day.”
Two White House offi-
cials said they expected a
vote on the health care bill
on Wednesday or Thursday,
depending in part on the
timing of the budget vote.
The officials spoke on
condition of anonymity to
discuss internal delibera-
tions.
White House chief of
staff Reince Priebus has
taken the lead in discussions
with Congress on health
care, traveling to Capitol
Hill multiple times for
discussions with leadership,
as well as lawmakers in both
the conservative Freedom
Caucus and moderate
Tuesday Group.
Legislative
director
Marc Short and deputy
chief of staff Rick Dearborn
have also been active in
the discussions, according
to White House officials.
Vice President Mike Pence
was also selling the health
care plan in Congress and
was inviting senators and
their spouses to the Naval
Observatory for a dinner on
Tuesday night.
How involved Trump
will be in the discussions
remains unclear. But he has
been sending mixed signals
in his recent dealings with
lawmakers.
In an interview with The
Associated Press late last
month, Trump surprised
members of his adminis-
tration and congressional
leaders when he declared
he would be announcing
his tax overhaul proposal
within days.
Democrats on Monday
took a victory lap on a $1
trillion-plus spending bill
to fund the government
through Sept. 30. The
bill successfully avoids a
government shutdown. But
it includes no money for
construction of Trump’s
long-promised wall along
the U.S.-Mexico border.
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