Omnibus reflects hard-fought compromises

The text of the $1 trillion omnibus spending package introduced before midnight on Wednesday represents hard-fought compromises between Republicans and Democrats in which each side scored victories. 

Democrats have yet to sign on to the deal, but the report released by Republicans reflects concessions by both sides. Democrats say there are a few issues that must still be resolved. 

Legislators will likely only have until Friday to decide whether they support the giant package.

The GOP was able to get a number of key provisions, including some defunding of Obama’s healthcare reform and Wall Street reform initiatives. Democrats were able to keep the vast majority of policy riders, including most of those relating to the environment, out of the bill. 

{mosads}The White House said late Wednesday that it is still unhappy with several policy provisions in the bill and is pushing for a stopgap to keep the government operating past Friday, when current funding runs out. Republicans say that Democrats already agreed to these and that is why they are moving forward with the omnibus as a standalone bill. Democrats have refused to sign the House-Senate conference report. 

Senate Democratic leadership says they are not signing onto the fact that the bill prohibits the District of Columbia from spending money on abortions, that it prohibits a forced national transition from incandescent light bulbs and that it blocks family travel to Cuba.

The White House also wants to tack on increased funding for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which had its funding cut in a minibus approved last month.

All of the nine remaining annual appropriations bills are included in the bill. The base price tag is $915 billion, with an extra $115 billion in war funding for the military and $11 billion in war funding for the State Department.

To keep the top-line spending number under the 2012 spending cap of $1.043 trillion, including the $128 billion minibus package that passed Congress in November, appropriators have put $8.1 billion for disaster aid in a separate bill. Under the debt-ceiling agreement, up to $11.3 billion in disaster aid could have been added to the spending cap.

On healthcare reform, the GOP wins by having a provision in the Financial Services bill that prevents the IRS from spending any money to implement healthcare reform in 2012. The individual mandate to buy insurance, enforced by tax penalties, starts in 2014, but the IRS was spending money before then to hire and train personnel.

The same bill rescinds $25 million from a Securities and Exchange Commission reserve fund to be used to implement Wall Street reform. 

The GOP also wins in that the bill by terminating a renewable energy program that gave funds to the bankrupt Solyndra solar energy company and forces the administration to expedite plans for offshore oil and gas drilling.  

It also contains funding for D.C. Opportunity Scholarships, prohibits administration “czars,” prohibits funding for needle exchange programs and cuts President Obama’s Race to the Top schools initiative by 20 percent. 

The GOP also secured a provision that bars Health and Human Services from promoting gun control and prohibits a Labor Department rule on coal dust. 

On abortion, the sides found compromise. Existing pro-life riders are in the bill, but cuts to Planned Parenthood and a global gag rule prventing non-governmental organizations from discussing abortion are not. Funding for the U.N. Population Fund is cut but not eliminated.

The Environmental Protection Agency sees its funding cut, but not drastically. The cut is $233 million from 2011 levels.

On the other hand, the State Department and foreign assistance gets a sizable reduction in the bill. It comes in at nearly $9 billion below Obama’s request and $6 billion below 2011. Bilateral aid is cut by $2.2 billion, a reflection of its lack of public support. 

Pell Grants are another area of compromise. The level of the scholarships is maintained, but eligibility is cut over time, leading to $11 billion in savings over 10 years. 

The bill also delays the collapse of the Postal Service by postponing until August mandated benefit payments.

This story was updated at 10:13 a.m.