WASHINGTON — The nation stepped back from the brink of default Wednesday as Congress approved a bill to reopen the federal government and raise the debt ceiling.
President Barack Obama signed the bill early Thursday. The White House told federal employees to expect to return to work Thursday morning.
The Senate approved the proposal crafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on an 81-18 vote Wednesday night. Twenty-seven Republicans joined Democrats in backing the bill. About two hours later, the measure moved to the House of Representatives, where it was approved 285-144. Eighty-seven Republicans joined 198 Democrats in voting yes. All 144 no votes were Republicans.
“We fought the good fight. We just didn’t win,” House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said hours before the vote.
The partisan bickering and acrimony that enveloped the House during the 16-day shutdown was largely replaced by softer tones and talk of bipartisanship prior to Wednesday’s vote, perhaps to soothe and reassure the markets.
Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., former chair of the House Financial Services Committee, asked colleagues, “For one night let us talk about what is good for this country and not about the other party” before he voted for the measure.
“I’m pleased that cooler heads have finally prevailed,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. “This legislation must be supported but it should not be celebrated. No high-fives or spiking the football. … It’s not a win for anyone, particularly the institution of Congress or the president, for that matter.”
President Barack Obama, who spoke after the Senate vote, thanked Democrats and Republicans for their work and said he would sign the measure “immediately,” to reopen the government and “begin to lift this cloud of uncertainty and unease from our businesses and from the American people.”
Obama’s remarks came before the House vote. He said he would have more to say Thursday, declaring, “There’s a lot of work ahead of us, including our need to earn back the trust of the American people that’s been lost over the last few weeks.”
Obama suggested his focus will return to a stalled immigration overhaul, passing a farm bill and the federal budget.
“We could get all these things done even this year, if everybody comes together in a spirit of, how are we going to move this country forward and put the last three weeks behind us?” he said.
Obama thanked congressional leaders for reaching a resolution, but he added, “Hopefully next time it won’t be in the eleventh hour. One of the things that I said throughout this process is, we’ve got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis.” He took no questions but turned and said “No” when a reporter asked whether the deal meant he and Congress would be back in the same place in three months.
The expected approval by Congress would reopen the shuttered parts of the government after 16 days and end for now the stalemate that started when House Republicans refused to approve funding for the government past Oct. 1 unless the Senate and Obama agreed to defund the new Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare. It also would temporarily extend the government debt ceiling. The government was expected to run out of borrowing authority Thursday evening, raising the specter of default.
“The eyes of the world have been in Washington all week,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “And while they witnessed a great deal of political discord, today they’ll see Congress reaching historic bipartisan agreement to reopen government and avoid default on the nation’s bills.”
The compromise appeared to be a victory for Democrats, as the health care law was left relatively unscathed.
Under the deal, the government would be funded through Jan. 15 and the $16.7 trillion debt ceiling would be increased until Feb. 7. A bipartisan House-Senate conference committee — co-chaired by Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis. — would work on larger budget issues. The committee will have until Dec. 13 to complete its work and report to Congress.
McConnell said Republicans managed to preserve tenants of the 2011 Budget Control Act, which includes the mandatory domestic and defense cuts known as sequestration.
“That’s been a top priority for me and for my colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle throughout this debate,” he said. “And it’s been worth the effort.”
Still, McConnell acknowledged that Republicans came up short.
“This is far less than many of us had hoped for, frankly,” McConnell said. “But it’s far better than what some had sought. Now it’s time for Republicans to unite behind other crucial goals.”
Boehner also talked about preserving the Budget Control Act in announcing that he would not stand in the way of a House vote on the Senate plan.
“Blocking the bipartisan agreement reached today by members of the Senate will not be a tactic for us,” Boehner said. “In addition to the risk of default, doing so would open the door for the Democratic majority in Washington to raise taxes again on the American people and undo the spending caps in the 2011 Budget Control Act without replacing them with better spending cuts.”
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who was at the forefront of the plan to tie government funding to a demand to defund Obamacare, signaled that he would not block a vote on the Reid-McConnell compromise.
“I have no objections of the timing of this vote, and the reason is simple,” Cruz said when asked whether he would filibuster the plan. “There’s nothing to be gained from delaying this vote one day or two days, the outcome will be the same.”
That said, Cruz blasted the deal, calling it a victory for the Washington establishment.