WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – A breakthrough budget deal that avoids a government shutdown in January and blunts automatic spending cuts easily won passage in the U.S. House of Representatives yesterday, laying the groundwork for two years free of funding crises.
The 332-94 bipartisan vote sends the measure to the Senate, which is expected to pass it next week despite the objections of conservative political groups that say it violates their core goal of cutting government spending.
The modest deal makes no major dent in the U.S. deficit and does not deal with the nation’s borrowing authority, which could provoke a battle when it needs to be increased by Congress in late February or early in the spring.
Nor is there any expectation that it will usher in a new era of cooperation on other issues, such as immigration or gun control.
The deal sets spending levels for two years, a significant break from the recent pattern of short-term funding bills that require extension every few months, always under the threat of a government shutdown like the 16 day closure in October.
It follows three years of bitter partisan warfare over spending, taxes and President Barack Obama’s healthcare law that twice brought the nation to the brink of defaulting on its obligations.
The vote was a victory for Republican House Speaker John Boehner, who has been repeatedly rebuked by the conservative, Tea Party wing of his caucus. This time, however, he demonstrated he could steer a budget compromise through the deeply divided chamber and that Republicans were capable of avoiding the brinkmanship that has marked the past three years.
“Is it perfect, does it go far enough? No, not at all,” Boehner said of the budget deal during a day-long House debate.
“It’s going to take a lot more work to get our arms around our debt and our deficit, but this budget is a positive, positive step in that direction,” he added.
The budget measure won a strong majority of House Republicans and split the Tea Party activists that have made Boehner’s three years as Speaker so challenging. Some of the House’s most conservative members, such as Louisiana’s John Fleming and Blake Farenthold of Texas, voted yes.
