The House passed a bipartisan budget bill on Thursday averting another round of shutdown brinksmanship. The deal struck by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) received nearly equal support from both sides of the aisle passing easily 332-94. The bill that President Obama has indicated he would sign into law, now heads to the Senate where it is expected to pass next week, according to Politico. The deal, which was considered more of a truce than a sweeping legislative achievement, has been the subject of heavy criticism from conservative activists.
The plan alleviates the impact of sequestration and slightly reduces the budget deficit over the next decade. The agreement, Politico reports, “includes $23 billion in net deficit reduction, [but] doesn’t extend expanded unemployment benefits that expire at the end of December. It also does nothing about the debt ceiling, which must be addressed sometime in the spring.”
Here’s more on the details of the deal from the New York Times:
The deal would reverse many of the across-the-board sequestration cuts that were set to deepen next month. Spending on military and domestic programs would rise to $1.012 trillion from the $967 billion expected this fiscal year, then inch up to $1.014 trillion in the fiscal year that begins in October. But over 10 years, deficits would go down slightly, because of higher airline ticket fees, larger worker contributions to federal retirement plans, slower growth in military pensions, and a two-year extension in the next decade of a 2 percent cut to Medicare provider payments.
