House approves $1 trillion spending package

WASHINGTON — In a dramatic vote late Thursday evening, the U.S. House narrowly approved a $1 trillion government spending package despite a rare uprising from House Democrats. The bill passed on a 219-206 vote.

Congress was set to approve a two-day stopgap funding bill to give the U.S. Senate time to pass the package and get it to President Obama's desk. Government funding had been scheduled to run out at midnight.

House Democrats derailed plans Thursday afternoon for a vote on the funding bill after lawmakers rebelled over provisions tucked into the measure to roll back regulations on Wall Street and ease campaign finance laws.

The uprising created a rare moment of intraparty warfare, pitting the majority of House Democrats against President Obama. The president had announced support for the package because it includes many of his spending priorities, such as funds to combat the Ebola epidemic and Islamic State militants as well as more money for Pell Grants and early education programs.

But in a blistering speech on the House floor, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., characterized the package as a "moral hazard" and said she was "enormously disappointed" in the president.

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GOP leaders and the White House were caught off-guard by the Democratic opposition, because the carefully negotiated package had bipartisan input from lawmakers in both chambers before it was unveiled earlier this week.

House GOP leaders pulled the bill from the floor Thursday afternoon in order to ensure they had the votes for passage after every Democrat voted against a procedural motion to advance the bill.

The White House then dispatched Chief of Staff Denis McDonough to meet privately with House Democrats on Thursday evening in an effort to shore up support.

The opposition was sparked Tuesday when Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., came out against the bill because it includes a rollback of a regulatory provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial services law that defenders say is intended to shield taxpayers from future risks from complex financial trades conducting by major banks.

A provision that greatly increases the amount private donors can give to fund political conventions also incensed Democrats who saw it as a further giveaway to special interests. Pelosi said she was not briefed on the full extent of the provision before the bill was unveiled.

Some Democrats voiced strong support for the package because it reflects many Democratic spending priorities and said scuttling it would only result in a more conservative package next year when Republicans take full control of Congress. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., the second-highest-ranking House Democrat, came out in support of the measure.

Retiring Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., a member of the Appropriations Committee, said Democrats with "more liberal constituencies" were under political pressure to oppose it.

"Frankly, there are some people who will not let Elizabeth Warren get to the left of them," he said. Warren is a popular figure among the party's liberal base and one of the most prominent advocates for tougher oversight of Wall Street.

The package is the result of weeks of negotiations between House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., and Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., and their party leaders. Rogers said its passage "will show our people that we can and will govern responsibly."

The funding behemoth includes 11 of the 12 annual spending bills for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, and one short-term funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans insisted on a short-term DHS bill because they want another opportunity next year — when the GOP takes control of the Senate — to battle the president over his recent executive order that would delay deportation for as many as 4 million undocumented who meet certain criteria.

Some Republicans opposed the measure because they said it did not go far enough to rein in the president's order. GOP opposition meant Republicans needed Democratic votes to pass it, which is where Pelosi saw an opportunity to try to remove the two provisions.

In the end, enough Democrats sided with Republicans. "In a world of alternatives, I have concluded that it's better for us to pass this (bill)... than it is to defeat it," Hoyer said.