House OKs $4B in cuts, averts shutdown

Staff/wire report

WASHINGTON

The House passed emergency short-term legislation Tuesday to cut federal spending by $4 billion and avert a government shutdown. Senate Democrats agreed to follow suit, handing Republicans an early victory in their drive to rein in government.

The bill that cleared the House on a bipartisan vote of 335-91 eliminates the threat of a shutdown Friday, when existing funding authority expires. At the same time, it creates a compressed two-week time frame for the White House and lawmakers to engage in what looms as a highly contentious negotiation on a follow-up bill to set spending levels through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

The Senate set a vote on the short-term measure for this morning, the final step before it goes to President Barack Obama for his signature. “We’ll pass this and then look at funding the government on a long-term basis,” said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

The White House, which earlier in the day called publicly for an interim measure of up to five weeks, stopped short of saying the president would sign the legislation.

“The president is encouraged by the progress Congress is making toward a short-term agreement,” the president’s spokesman, Jay Carney, said. “Moving forward, the focus needs to be on both sides’ finding common ground in order to reach a long-term solution that removes the kind of uncertainty that can hurt the economy and job creation.”

House Republicans were more eager to draw attention to the bill that was passing with the acquiescence of the White House and Democrats than to the challenge yet ahead.

“Now that congressional Democrats and the administration have expressed an openness for spending cuts, the momentum is there for a long-term measure that starts to finally get our fiscal house in order,” said Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia.

The GOP won control of the House and gained seats in the Senate last fall with the backing of tea-party activists demanding deep cuts in spending and other steps to reduce the federal government.

U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson of Poland, R-6th, voted in favor of the stopgap measure.

But he wasn’t pleased with the bill.

“The two-week stopgap measure is not ideal — it’s barely acceptable,” Johnson said. “House Republicans have pledged to cut spending, and this measure does cut $4 billion from the federal government. House Republicans also pledged to prevent a government shutdown, so this measure, though inadequate, is necessary due to Democrats’ failure to pass a federal budget last year.”

The bill keeps the government open until March 18.

“No one wants a government shutdown, and this gives everyone some breathing room to come up with a more-permanent solution and finish bipartisan legislation to fund programs for the rest of this fiscal year,” said U.S. Rep. Steven C. LaTourette of Bainbridge, R-14th.

On the House floor, Democrats sharply attacked Republicans in the run-up to the vote, but much of their criticism was aimed at an earlier $61 billion package of spending cuts that had cleared on a party-line vote.

“The sooner we can agree on a long-term package of smart cuts — not reckless, arbitrary, job-destroying cuts — the sooner we can stop funding the government in disruptive two-week increments that undermine efficiency and spread economic uncertainty,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, second-ranking in the Democratic leadership.

When it came time to vote, Democrats split, 104 in favor and 85 against. Republicans voted 231-6 in favor.