House Passes Budget Pact and Military Abuse Protections, but Not ...
New York Times-1 hour ago
WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved a bipartisan budget accord and a Pentagon policy bill that would strengthen protections ...
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House Passes Budget Pact and Military Abuse Protections, but Not Farm Bill
Gabriella Demczuk/The New York Times
Boehner Responds to Critics on the Right:
The House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, doubled down on criticism he
gave on Wednesday and defended the budget deal negotiated by
Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin.
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and JEREMY W. PETERS
Published: December 12, 2013 70 Comments
WASHINGTON — The House on Thursday approved a bipartisan budget accord
and a Pentagon policy bill that would strengthen protections for victims
of sexual assault. But as it wrapped up its business for the year, it
left unfinished a major piece of domestic policy — the farm bill —
making it likely that Congress will not deal with it until January.
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Bipartisan Budget Deal Puts Ryan Under Fire From Fellow Conservatives (December 12, 2013)
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Capitol Leaders Agree to a Deal on the Budget (December 11, 2013)
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Republicans and Democrats hope the budget pact, which passed 332 to 94,
will act as a truce in the spending battles that have paralyzed Congress
for nearly three years, and leaders in both parties sought to
marginalize hard-line conservatives opposed to any compromise.
The defense measure would, in addition to strengthening protections for
military victims of sexual assault, leave open the prison at Guantánamo
Bay, Cuba, over President Obama’s objections.
The provisions to stem the growing number of sexual assault cases in the
military are the most expansive in years. They would include new rules
to prevent commanding officers from overturning sexual assault verdicts.
But an agreement remained elusive on the farm bill, the subject of
continuing disagreements between Republicans and Democrats over spending
for food stamps and expanding crop insurance for farmers, among other
issues. All the House could pass on Thursday was a simple one-month
extension of the current law, which Senate Democrats oppose because they
think it will distract from the completion of a new bill.
Earlier, with bipartisan support in hand, Speaker John A. Boehner of
Ohio declared open warfare on the outside conservative groups that tried
to scuttle the budget deal. For the second day in a row, he accused
groups like the Club for Growth, Heritage Action and Americans for
Prosperity of reflexively opposing a reasonable plan to try to raise
their profiles and improve their fund-raising.
He said the groups had devised the strategy of linking further
government spending to the repeal of President Obama’s health care law,
then pressing their members and House Republicans to go along, even
though they knew it would shut down the government and ultimately fail.
“Are you kidding me?” the speaker shouted, denouncing opposition to the
budget accord. “There comes a point where some people step over the
line. When you criticize something and you have no idea what you’re
criticizing, it undermines your credibility.”
Yet when the Senate takes up the bill, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the
Republican leader, is likely to vote against it, as are virtually all of
the Republican senators who are contending with Tea Party challenges
next year or are wooing conservatives for a potential presidential bid.
Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the ranking Republican on the Senate
Budget Committee, has already declared his opposition.
“Much of the spending increase in this deal has been justified by
increased fees and new revenue,” Mr. Sessions said. “In other words,
it’s a fee increase to fuel a spending increase — rather than reducing
deficits.”
By most analyses, the budget deal, struck by Representative Paul D.
Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, and Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of
Washington, is a modest plan to soften the blow of the across-the-board
spending cuts, known as sequestration, that went into effect in March,
and to slightly lower the budget deficit over the next decade.
The legislation would also extend current Medicare payment rates for
three months, staving off a cut of more than 20 percent to health care
providers. That would allow lawmakers to try to find a more permanent
“doctors’ fix” to avoid a deficit reduction measure that neither party
has been able to stomach for more than a decade.
The budget fight has turned into a donnybrook between congressional
leaders and the groups and lawmakers aligned with the Tea Party. It pits
the House Republican leadership against the Tea Party wing; one
potential Republican presidential candidate, Mr. Ryan, against two
others who oppose his deal, Senators Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand
Paul of Kentucky; and a congressional majority against outside pressure
groups, both liberal and conservative.
“It is clear that the conservative movement has come under attack on
Capitol Hill,” 50 conservative activists wrote in a letter to
congressional Republicans.
Democratic leaders took heart in what they saw as a turning point in
their battle with uncompromising conservatives and as a moment when a
cooperative attitude in Washington might return.
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