Congressional leaders unveiled a broad package of spending and tax legislation that would avert a U.S. government shutdown and lift
the 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports.
House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow Republicans in a closed-door meeting
Tuesday night in Washington that leaders had reached a deal pairing a $1.1
trillion spending bill with a separate measure to revive a series of expired tax breaks. The spending bill would fund
the government through September 2016.
“Ryan laid out a compelling case to support the deal,” which includes
lifting the oil export ban, said Representative Reid Ribble of Wisconsin.
The tax legislation was posted on the House website late Tuesday night,
and the spending measure followed it early Wednesday. Senate Democrats were
awaiting final language before announcing whether they agree on the plan, a
party leadership aide said Tuesday.
Government funding expires at the end of the day Wednesday. The House
plans to pass a stopgap spending bill Wednesday that funds the government until
Dec. 22 to give Congress time to consider the full-year measure, according to a
leadership aide. Ryan, elected speaker in late October, and fellow Republicans
want to show they can govern after years of threatened government shutdowns and
a 16-day partial shutdown in October 2013.
‘Permanent Relief’
The plan “will provide permanent relief to families and job creators”
and includes “many provisions that Republicans have long fought for,” Ryan
spokeswoman AshLee Strong said in a statement.
Republican Representative Ann Wagner of Missouri said the proposal to
lift the crude oil export ban “is huge” and would have a “much bigger” effect
than building the Keystone XL pipeline.
Ryan told members of his conference during Tuesday’s meeting that he was
planning for Thursday votes on both bills, according to Representative John
Kline of Minnesota. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky
Republican, said earlier Tuesday that he hoped his chamber would also vote on
the fiscal plan Thursday.
‘Cadillac Tax’
The posting of the spending measure, however, may complicate Ryan’s
timetable. He has promised that text of the two bills would be posted for three
days before they go to the House floor for a vote. The tax package was filed
before midnight Tuesday, meaning that it could be voted on as early as
Thursday, but the spending bill was filed after 1 a.m. Wednesday. Strong said
in an e-mail that Ryan’s office would announce a floor schedule.
The tax measure would extend credits for renewable energy sources that
begin construction by the end of 2016, and a $1 per gallon biodiesel credit --
provisions sought by Democrats in exchange for lifting the oil export ban.
The legislation would suspend the “Cadillac tax” on high-cost health
insurance plans required by the Affordable Care Act. The tax-extension bill
would also suspend Obamacare’s 2.3 percent tax on medical devices through 2017.
Tax Credits
The tax-extension measure would make a number of tax breaks permanent, including those for
companies’ research and development, and allow small business owners to
depreciate assets during the first year after purchase rather than over a
number of years. Also to be made permanent are an enhanced child tax credit and
earned income tax credit, as well as tax breaks for charitable giving and
schoolteachers’ expenses.
Asked whether she planned to vote for the fiscal legislation, Wagner
said, “You bet I am.”
The plan wouldn’t provide a “bailout” to financially troubled Puerto
Rico, Wagner said. It would provide health funds including bonus payments to
doctors and hospitals that use electronic health records. The island’s
non-voting House member, Pedro Pierluisi, had sought to include a provision in
the spending bill to grant Puerto Rico agencies access to Chapter 9 bankruptcy.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said last
week that Republicans would need Democratic votes to help pass the plan, as
they have in previous spending bills. A House Democratic leadership aide said
Tuesday night that Republican leaders ignored her advice by putting the crude
oil export language in the spending bill instead of the tax-extender bill. That
will cut into Democratic support for the spending bill, the aide said.
No Shutdown
Republicans insist they won’t allow another government shutdown like the
one in 2013 over an unsuccessful bid by party members to end funding for
Obamacare. That shutdown cratered public opinion poll numbers for Republicans,
who are particularly wary of a repeat as the 2016 election nears.
“I think we’ve been pretty clear we’re not going to have a shutdown,”
Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, said earlier Tuesday during a Politico event in
Washington.
The deal would lift the the trade restrictions on U.S. crude oil exports
in exchange for extending renewable energy tax credits. U.S. oil producers,
including Continental Resources Inc., Pioneer Natural Resources Co. and
ConocoPhillips, have been pressing for an end to the restrictions that block
exports of most raw, unprocessed crude but don’t restrict foreign sales of gasoline,
diesel and other refined petroleum products.
Export Ban
“We have the best technology, the best oil and over time we will drive
out Russian oil, we will drive out Saudi, Iranian,” Republican Representative
Joe Barton of Texas said in an interview. “It puts the United States in the
driver’s seat of energy policy worldwide. It is a huge victory.”
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon called said lifting the export
ban was a “huge mistake” that “is a windfall for big oil at the expense of
working Americans and our planet.”
The spending measure would scale back a program that allows visa-free
entry to the U.S. for citizens of about three dozen countries, including much
of Europe. People who have traveled recently to Iraq, Syria or other countries
deemed to have significant terrorist activity would have to go through the
normal visa process.
To seal the agreement, Republicans gave up on their bid to require
people to provide a Social Security number to take a child tax credit, said
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas. Democrats
contended such a requirement would disproportionately affect immigrants.
The legislation also would ratify an International Monetary Fund plan
approved in 2010 to increase the voting share of emerging economies and double
the amount of permanent funding available to the Washington-based fund. Until
now, Republican opposition has prevented the IMF from implementing the changes.
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