Congressional leaders released their long-negotiated omnibus spending bill Tuesday evening, with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan touting Republican wins that seem less than great victories.
In a closed-door meeting with fellow Republicans, Ryan (R-Wis.) touted a pause in Obamacare's "Cadillac tax," the lifting of a longstanding oil-export ban and preservation of several other policy preferences in the year-end deal, which include $1.149 trillion in spending and several hundred billion in tax breaks. […]
After the deal was announced, many members of both parties said Democrats won this round on federal spending. They agreed to lift the prohibition on exporting U.S. oil, but turned back other so-called GOP policy riders, including efforts to tighten restrictions on Syrian and Iraqi refugees. The GOP also did not mount a serious effort to strip funding from Planned Parenthood, although many hardline conservatives had demanded such a move. [...]
The deal also includes extensions to wind and solar tax credits, as well as major changes to cybersecurity sharing law. And it would reauthorize the 9/11 health and compensation law.
What's out—any restrictions on the implementation of net neutrality, along with Planned Parenthood defunding and the Iraqi and Syrian refugee ban. All of this means the Freedom Caucus guys won't vote for it. Most of the really poison pill stuff they wanted did not make it into the bill. However, there's enough goodies for corporate America in the parallel tax extender bill that they'll happily support that.
Ryan is going to pass the spending bill with Democrats and the tax extenders with Republicans and call it a wash. This doesn't bode terribly well for Ryan's future with the Freedom Caucus, particularly since he's also making deals with Harry Reid.
The current funding resolution expires Wednesday night, so both chambers will have to vote on another temporary extension Wednesday. That bill has already been introduced and it expires on the December 22, giving them plenty of time to figure out a procedure in the Senate to get the full spending measure done. It could take all that time, if the Republican presidential candidates in the Senate decide they want to make some headlines, but it seems likely they'll want to get the hell out of Dodge for Christmas and will have this wrapped up by the end of the day on Friday.