WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Friday urged the Senate to ratify a $1.1 trillion, House-passed spending bill that has roiled his Democratic Party, judging it an imperfect measure that stems from “the divided government that the American people voted for.”
One day after House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi publicly chastised him for supporting the bill, the president said there were provisions “I really do not like.” At the same time, he said there were other portions that “fund health insurance, early childhood education, the fight against climate change and expand manufacturing hubs to grow jobs.”
With lawmakers eager to wrap up work for the year, the measure was on track for final passage by early next week before Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, joined by Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, launched a bid to force the Senate to vote on Obama’s new immigration policy.
The move led Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to abandon plans to adjourn the Senate for the weekend, and raised the possibility of a test vote on the spending bill shortly after midnight today.
Senate Republican leaders have pledged to challenge Obama’s immigration policy early in the new year, after the GOP takes control of the Senate. But Cruz suggested they shouldn’t be entirely trusted to keep their pledge.
“We will learn soon enough if those statements are genuine and sincere,” he said, in a clear reference to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and Speaker John Boehner.
To give the Senate time to complete action, Obama signed a 48-hour law to keep the government funded through today and prevent a shutdown that both parties have pledged to avoid.
A second stop-gap bill was also in the wings, cleared by the House and pending in the Senate, to make sure the government had funding through Wednesday.
Ironically, there was little if any controversy over the spending levels in the spending measure, which provides funding to keep nearly the entire government operating through the Sept. 30 end of the current budget year.
The sole exception is the Department of Homeland Security, which is funded only until Feb. 27.
Republicans, who will have control of the Senate by then, intend to try at that time to force the president to roll back a new immigration policy that removes the threat of deportation from millions of immigrants living in the country illegally.
