Trump signs budget deal ending shutdown

President Trump on Friday morning signed the congressional deal to fund the government, ending a brief government shutdown that began at midnight. 

Trump announced the signing on Twitter, shortly after the House delivered him the bill from Congress.

“Just signed Bill. Our Military will now be stronger than ever before. We love and need our Military and gave them everything — and more. First time this has happened in a long time. Also means JOBS, JOBS, JOBS!” he tweeted. 

Congress could not reach a deal to fund the government until early Monday morning after Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) held up the Senate’s vote in opposition to the plan’s revenue hikes, which he worried would balloon deficits. Paul had called for a vote on an amendment to effectively roll back those hikes, but leadership did not budge. 

“I have been offering all day to vote. I would like nothing more than to vote. But it’s the other side. It’s the leadership that has refused to allow any amendments,” he said. 

Paul’s derailment of what was expected to be a relatively smooth path for the budget deal in the Senate prompted backlash from his GOP colleagues.

Ultimately, the Senate voted on the plan after midnight, sending the bill to the House, which passed it in a 240-186 vote around 5:30 a.m. Friday, despite opposition from Democrats.

The deal passed by Congress sets the stage to boost federal spending for both defense and nondefense programs by $300 billion over the next two years and will suspend the debt ceiling for one year, knocking two major to-do items off lawmakers’ list.

The bill will fund the government until March 23, which will give lawmakers time to write an omnibus spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year and break the pattern of gridlock that has led to five temporary funding patches since September.

The deal also includes a number of other priorities for both parties, including nearly $90 billion for disaster relief, $6 billion to address the opioid crisis, a four-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program and more than $7 billion for community health centers.

The deal, however, did not include a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, setting up an immigration fight in days to come.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pledged to allow floor debate on immigration as soon as next week as part of his deal to end the government shutdown in January, but House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) refused to make such a pledge Thursday.

Ryan refused to assure Democrats he would take up any Senate-passed bipartisan bill or allow open-ended debate on immigration. 

“We will bring a solution to the floor, one the president will sign,” Ryan said during a news conference on Thursday.

But Ryan expressed reluctance to move forward with legislation lacking Trump’s support.

“I don’t want to just risk a veto,” Ryan said.

Despite blowback from House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), 73 House Democrats backed the plan without such a promise from Ryan, helping push the bill over the edge and attain the votes needed to pass.

Republicans largely backed the plan, though the House Freedom Caucus, which consists of roughly 30 conservative members, took an official position against the package because of fiscal concerns.  

Ryan and his leadership team were forced to lean on both Democrats and GOP defense hawks to largely supply the votes for the budget deal.

Defense Secretary James Mattis joined the last-minute push to wrangle up support from defense hawks, making phone calls to lawmakers in the hours before the midnight deadline, according to one source.

In subsequent tweets after signing the bill, Trump framed the plan as an imperfect deal that could have been better if Congress had larger Republican majorities.

“Without more Republicans in Congress, we were forced to increase spending on things we do not like or want in order to finally, after many years of depletion, take care of our Military. Sadly, we needed some Dem votes for passage. Must elect more Republicans in 2018 Election!” Trump tweeted. 

“Costs on non-military lines will never come down if we do not elect more Republicans in the 2018 Election, and beyond. This Bill is a BIG VICTORY for our Military, but much waste in order to get Dem votes. Fortunately, DACA not included in this Bill, negotiations to start now!”

Updated at 9:49 a.m.