Spending talks nearly done, $1.3T bill soon to be unveiled (10% increase for agencies)

Talks over a $1.3 trillion government spending bill neared completion Wednesday as the White House and Capitol Hill Democrats ironed out deals on a first round of funding for President Donald Trump’s U.S.-Mexico border wall. GOP aides said early Wednesday that Trump would win $1.6 billion for border wall and other physical barriers along the border, which would construct older wall designs, but that he would be denied a more recent, far larger $25 billion request for multi-year funding for the wall project. Democrats said just $641 million would go to new segments of fencing and walls that double as levees. The bill would give Trump a huge budget increase for the military, while Democrats would cement wins on infrastructure and other domestic programs that they failed to get under President Barack Obama. Battles over budget priorities in the huge bill were all settled, while a handful of non-budget issues remained, including a GOP effort to fix a poorly drafted section of the recent tax cut law that is harming Midwestern grain companies. The measure on the table would provide major funding increases for the Pentagon — $80 billion over current limits — bringing the military budget to $700 billion and giving GOP defense hawks a long-sought victory. Domestic accounts would get a generous 10 percent increase on average as well, awarding Democrats the sort of spending increases they sought but never secured during the Obama administration. Democrats touted almost $4 billion in total funding to fight the nation’s opioid addiction epidemic, an almost $3 billion increase. More than $2 billion would go to strengthen school safety through grants for training, security measures and treatment for the mentally ill. Medical research at the National Institutes of Health, a longstanding bipartisan priority, would receive a record $3 billion increase to $37 billion. Community development block grants, which are flexible funds that are enormously popular with mayors and other local officials, appear set for a record increase despite being marked for elimination in Trump’s budget plan. And an Obama-era transportation grant program would see its budget tripled to $1.5 billion instead of being eliminated as Trump requested. Agencies historically unpopular with Republicans, such as the IRS, appear likely to get increases too, in part to prepare for implementation of the Republicans’ recently passed tax measure. The Environmental Protection Agency, always a GOP target, would have its budget frozen at $8 billion. The bill would add $143 billion over limits set under a 2011 budget and debt pact that forced automatic budget cuts on annual agency appropriations. Coupled with last year’s tax cuts, it heralds the return of trillion-dollar budget deficits as soon as the budget year starting in October. Republican conservatives are dismayed by the free-spending measure, which means Democratic votes are required to pass it. That gave Democrats leverage to force GOP negotiators to drop numerous policy riders that Democrats considered poison pills...MORE