The House overwhelmingly passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill on Friday that would fund the government through September 2016 and repeal a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports. Lawmakers passed the 2,009-page omnibus measure in a 316-113 vote, with 150 Republicans backing the bill and 95 opposing, and 166 Democrats voting in favor and 18 against, reported USA Today.
The Senate is expected to pass the bill later Friday, which will likely be paired with a $622-billion package of tax breaks approved by the House on Thursday. The White House has said President Obama will sign both bills into law before the government's current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. ET on Dec. 23, according to The Wall Street Journal.
"The spending bill had some big wins for the country, whether it's lifting the oil export ban, increasing military spending, or renewing health care for the 9/11 first responders," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), said Thursday.
For fiscal 2016, the legislation would increase spending by $50 billion above the sequester limits established in 2011 and in effect since 2013, according to the WSJ.
Party leaders spent months negotiating policy provisions to be included in the spending package, which combines separate fiscal 2016 spending bills for every federal agency into a single bill. Still, members on the edges of both parties complained that the legislation didn't do enough for their side.
Conservatives said the legislation overspent and were unhappy that it includes language to fund Obama's refugee resettlement program, Planned Parenthood and sanctuary cities. Some also complained that the bill would significantly increase H-2B visas to foreign workers and violate the privacy of Americans due to cybersecurity provisions.
In the end, Ryan was able to win over enough GOP votes by adding language to lift the decades-old ban on U.S. crude oil exports, a major win for Republicans that liberal Democrats said could send American jobs overseas, according to The Hill.
In exchange for lifting the oil ban, Democrats reportedly beat back 150 policy riders that were proposed by Republicans, including demands for defunding Planned Parenthood and blocking Syrian refugees. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), noted that her leadership team also managed to secure the extension of several renewable energy tax credits.
"What we did in the bill more than 10 times offsets the damage that exporting crude oil does," Pelosi said. "Republicans' desperate thirst for lifting the oil export ban empowered Democrats to win significant concessions throughout the Omnibus, including ridding the bill of scores of deeply destructive poison pill riders," she wrote in a Thursday night.
Democrats had also expressed concern that the measure did nothing to address the debt crisis in Puerto Rico.
"We found a way to give away billions and billions of dollars to big oil companies, as it relates to lifting the prohibition on the export of crude oil, but we couldn't find a way to help the hardworking people of Puerto Rico," said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), according to The Hill. "Shame on us here in the United Congress."
But many ended up throwing their support behind the bill after Ryan promised to take up legislation on Puerto Rico by the end of March, notes The Huffington Post.
