Senate seeks to end Congress, pass $1.1 trillion funding bill

The Senate could approve the $1.1 trillion government-funding package as soon as Friday evening, one day after a dramatic vote in the House.

Senators are looking to wrap up the 113^th Congress by this weekend, and the funding bill keeping most of the government open through September is the big piece of business left.

{mosads}But it’s not the only thing on the Senate’s to-do list.

The chamber is scheduled to vote after 3 p.m. Friday to approve the annual Defense Department authorization bill, and will then confirm several nominees, including the new U.S. ambassadors to New Zealand and Iceland.

The Senate also needs to pass a package extending a variety of expired tax breaks for one year, as well as a House-approved reauthorization of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

Under a separate measure approved by the House and Senate, the government is operating under a two-day continuing resolution that expires Sunday.

That makes clearing the funding bill by Saturday at the latest the top priority.

A single senator’s objection could slow the process down, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) cautioned Friday that he would need the cooperation of all 99 of his colleagues.

Reid said he wanted to hold a final vote on the funding bill on Friday.

“I hope we can complete work on this bill as soon as we finish the defense bill, but that depends on everyone’s cooperation here,” Reid said on the floor.

Sen. Orrin Hatch (Utah), the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, expressed hope the tax extenders package would pass early Friday evening.

“I personally believe that it will pass,” he said. “I hope that nobody objects and puts us through going late tonight.”

Senate aides say Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) are the lawmakers considered most likely to drag out the floor proceedings to protest the omnibus.

Sessions has demanded for weeks that the year-end government funding measure include language that would halt President Obama’s executive order protecting as many as 5 million illegal immigrants from deportation.

Warren urged House Democrats this week to defeat the bill because it included a provision repealing a key piece of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

Aides to Sessions and Warren have declined to say whether their bosses will delay the omnibus by objecting to an accelerated timeline for voting.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who pledged in September to object to passing any legislation in the lame-duck session he deemed non-emergency, could also raise an objection, but he has stayed relatively quiet in recent days.

Any one senator could postpone a final vote on the omnibus until Monday by refusing to waive procedural rules.

Reid warned that government funding will expire at midnight Saturday.

“There isn’t a lot of time,” he said.

Reid also wants to approve the House-passed reauthorization of TRIA, a major priority for his deputy, Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York. Many real estate developers in New York, the target of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, say they need a government backstop to get insurance for major projects.

A senior GOP aide said Reid may have to bring the Senate back into session next week because Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) has a hold on the bill and Warren is likely to object because the House-passed version contains language further softening Dodd-Frank.

Coburn has said he will block it unless an amendment is added to allow states to opt out of the national program.

The Obama administration has already stated its strong opposition to the Wall Street provision, which would exempt some commodity futures traders from margin requirements required of big banks.

Senate aides expect the omnibus to have easily enough support to cross the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a filibuster.

One Democratic aide predicted that only eight Democrats would vote against it.

Liberal critics such as Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said they were deeply concerned about the policy rider weakening Dodd-Frank, but stopped short of pledging to vote “no.”

Republican senators said Friday morning that they would not yield back procedural time on several top-priority nominees, which could force Reid to extend the session into next week.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said he would not let Reid speed the consideration of 12 pending federal district court nominees.

“I won’t let it happen,” he said, adding that if Reid wants to get them confirmed he’ll have to run out the clock on the floor.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said he would not yield back any time on Anthony Blinken’s nomination to serve as deputy secretary of State because of concerns about the administration’s Cuba policy.