Trump signs budget deal after raising government shutdown threat

[rooster59]

Trump signs budget deal after raising government shutdown threat

By Steve Holland and Richard Cowan

 

U.S. President Donald Trump pats Congress' $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill with Vice President Mike Pence (L) and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (R) at his side as he holds an event to sign the bill in the Diplomatic Room of the White House in Washington. U.S., March 23, 2018. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump signed Congress' newly passed $1.3 trillion spending bill on Friday, ending several hours of confusion spurred by a tweeted veto threat that raised the spectre of a government shutdown.

 

Trump said he had signed the bill, despite his qualms on some issues, because a $60 billion increase in military spending had convinced him it was a worthwhile compromise.

 

"But I say to Congress I will never sign another bill like this again," he told reporters. "I'm not going to do it again."

 

White House and Capitol Hill aides had been left scrambling earlier in the day after Trump criticized the six-month spending bill, despite prior assurances from the administration that he would sign it ahead of a looming midnight deadline.

 

"I am considering a VETO of the Omnibus Spending Bill based on the fact that the 800,000 plus DACA recipients have been totally abandoned by the Democrats (not even mentioned in Bill) and the BORDER WALL, which is desperately needed for our National Defense, is not fully funded," Trump wrote on Twitter at 9 a.m. EDT.

 

Trump then huddled with his senior advisers to discuss a potential veto and was advised against it, with the advisers saying he would be blamed for a shutdown and that discussions continue on the issues he is concerned about, one aide said.

 

By early afternoon, he appeared before reporters in the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House to announce he had signed the measure.

 

"There are a lot of things I'm unhappy about in this bill," he said, patting the more than 2,000 pages of the legislation stacked on a purple box beside him.

 

It was unclear how seriously Republican leaders took Trump's shutdown threat. Neither Speaker Paul Ryan nor Senate Leader Mitch McConnell commented publicly on it.

 

Lawmakers in the Republican-dominated Senate and House of Representatives had already left Washington for a scheduled two-week spring recess, and Trump himself was scheduled on Friday to fly to Florida for a weekend at his private resort.

 

IMMIGRATION CONCERNS

 

Trump has been frustrated that Congress has not turned over funding to make good on his campaign promise to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The bill includes $1.6 billion for six month's of work on the project but he had sought $25 billion for it.

 

Trump also has been at odds with Democrats in Congress over the fate of Dreamer immigrants - those brought to the United States illegally when they were children.

 

Trump cancelled the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that gives work permits to the Dreamers and protects them from deportation. The decision is currently tied up in court cases.

 

He offered to extend the protections, tied to a sweeping set of changes to immigration laws, but subsequently rejected bipartisan offers from lawmakers.

 

As the six-month spending budget deal was coming together, there had been reports Trump had balked at the bill and had to be persuaded by Ryan to support it.

 

The conservative wing of Trump's party had panned the bill because of its spending increases and some deficit hawks cheered Trump's Friday morning threat to veto it.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-03-24

[Boon Mee]

Heh, Trump fooled them again.  What he signed was an omnibus bill, not a budget bill. 

He's under no obligation to spend that money. 

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

He's under no obligation to spend that money. 

Any entitlement program funded by either bill must be obligated.

Under either funding bill the POTUS has discretion not to spend congressional authorized funding (in the current Omnibus Bill passed by the majority of both Republican and Democrat parties). But such unexpended funds cannot be shifted elsewhere without congressional approval. Use it or lose it.

The difference between the two budget bills is how the bills are packaged for congressional approval.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnibus_bill

But you indicate that the difference between the two types of funding bills are based on POTUS' discretionary spending authority. Do you have authoritative support for that?

[downtowneddie]

3 hours ago, Boon Mee said:

Heh, Trump fooled them again.  What he signed was an omnibus bill, not a budget bill. 

He's under no obligation to spend that money. 

This is not the case. In 1974 Congress passed a law that said the president didn't have to power to impound funding unless both houses of congress approved of the act. The bill is called the Congressional Impoundment and Control Act of 1974. It's been upheld by the Supreme Court. It's true that the President can ask Congress to approve of his decision not to spend, but if both houses don't, then the funds must be spent.