Congress compromises to keep government running

WASHINGTON—Congress escaped a government shutdown by finding a compromise on a short-term spending bill that left everyone a little unhappy.

The Senate approved the continuing resolution yesterday 72 to 26, causing the House to scramble to schedule votes late last night. The House greenlighted the stopgap package 342 to 85 to keep government operations running until Dec. 9, allowing lawmakers to go home and campaign until after the Nov. 8 election.

In order to pass the spending measure, Republicans acquiesced on Zika virus funding. Democrats agreed to vote for $1.1 billion in funding last week, down from the $1.9 billion President Barack Obama wanted, only if Republicans took out language blocking funding to Planned Parenthood locations in Puerto Rico.

The new Zika funding package provides money for contraceptives at Planned Parenthood, a stipulation Democrats would not budge on since the virus can be sexually transmitted.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., agreed to the compromise because it maintains Hyde Amendment protections, ensuring that no money funds elective abortion.

But the agreement still didn’t sit well with some conservative groups.

After hearing Republicans agreed to send money to the nation’s largest abortion provider, The Heritage Foundation’s Roger Severino said Planned Parenthood essentially got a raise.

“It’s shameful that Planned Parenthood and its congressional allies were able to hold emergency health funding hostage until ‘big abortion’ got a cut of the new money,” Severino said last week. “Congress should fund compassionate and life-giving care with taxpayer funds, not an abortion industry that has disqualified itself by placing profits over respect for human life.”

After lawmakers agreed on Zika, funding to aid the lead-tainted water system in Flint, Mich., threatened to derail the whole deal.

Late Tuesday evening, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., met for extended periods to agree on a $170 million Flint funding package for lawmakers to address after the election. Democrats agreed to fall in line and pass the spending bill based on the promise that Republicans will ensure aid goes to Flint after the election as part of a separate legislative package called the Water Resources Development Act.

The Senate’s version approved $220 million to replace Flint’s water system. House and Senate negotiators will work out a final version to send to the president’s desk in November or December.

But not everyone liked the compromise.

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was one of the 26 senators to oppose the deal.

“I think the people of Flint are still not taken care of,” Menendez told me. “It’s all on a promise and not on any actual funding. We can’t be forced into bad choices simply because the Republicans want to jam it down our throats in terms of bad public policy.”

Michigan’s two Democratic senators, Debbie Stabenow and Gary Peters, also voted against the deal.

“It is wrong to ask families in Flint to wait at the back of the line again,” Stabenow said in a statement.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, R-Texas, told me there were a number of disappointments in the short-term spending bill, but Republicans had little leverage to get demands short of shutting down the government—an option Cornyn did not want to consider.

“I just think when you’re in a majority you’re supposed to govern, not shut down the government,” he told me.

The compromise deal includes $394 million to combat Zika-carrying mosquitoes and another $397 million to help develop a vaccine.

An additional $500 million will provide immediate aid to flood victims in Louisiana and West Virginia.