{"id":315272,"date":"2017-05-01T07:51:50","date_gmt":"2017-05-01T07:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=315272"},"modified":"2017-05-01T07:51:50","modified_gmt":"2017-05-01T07:51:50","slug":"us-budget-funding-deal-reached-to-avert-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=315272","title":{"rendered":"US budget: Funding deal reached to avert shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Congressional negotiators have reached an agreement on a spending bill to keep the US government running until 30 September.<\/p>\n<p>The bipartisan deal boosts military spending but does not include funding for President Donald Trump&#8217;s proposed wall on the Mexico border.<\/p>\n<div id=\"Brid_91144898_container\" class=\"brid-outstream\"><\/div>\n<p>The reported $1 trillion deal (\u00a3770bn) needs to be approved by lawmakers.<\/p>\n<p>On Friday Congress approved a stop-gap spending bill that averted a government shutdown at midnight on that day.<\/p>\n<p>That gave Congress one more week to work out federal spending for the last five months of the fiscal year.<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers are expected to vote on the package in the coming days.<\/p>\n<p>The failure to act would have closed national parks and monuments and laid off federal employees.<\/p>\n<p>The last shutdown, in 2013, lasted for 17 days.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">What is at stake?<\/h4>\n<p>Full details of the agreement on a spending bill are yet to be made public.<\/p>\n<p>But US media reports that it gives President Donald Trump a $12.5bn increase in defence spending and another $1.5bn for border security.<\/p>\n<p>White House proposals to cut popular programmes &#8211; such as funding medical research and community development grants &#8211; were rejected.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats also fended off potential cuts to women&#8217;s healthcare provider Planned Parenthood.<\/p>\n<p>New York City will reportedly receive a $68m boost for local law enforcement, in recompense for the cost of protecting President Trump and his family.<\/p>\n<p>The deal also gives coal miners $1.3bn in health benefits, which will be funded by a rise in customs fees.<\/p>\n<h4 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Why couldn&#8217;t Republicans just force it through?<\/h4>\n<p>There were a number of key disputes during tense negotiations, and Republicans &#8211; who control the Congress, Senate and White House &#8211; were forced to make concessions.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats had leverage in the talks because their votes will be needed to pass the bill.<\/p>\n<p>The Senate requires 60 votes to pass legislation, so the 52 Republicans there will need support from at least eight Democrats.<\/p>\n<p>President Trump earlier had to yield to Democratic demands not to include funding for the proposed wall on the US-Mexico border in the spending bill.<\/p>\n<p>Another concession was over Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Trump made scrapping it a key campaign pledge, but divisions among Republicans have so far prevented attempts to get his own health plan through Congress.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement on Sunday evening, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the deal &#8220;a good agreement for the American people&#8221; that &#8220;takes the threat of a government shutdown off the table&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>He said the measure would increase investment in medical research, education, and infrastructure.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Reports that the package makes a major down payment towards the president&#8217;s security priorities are encouraging,&#8221; said John Czwartacki, a spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget.<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Congressional negotiators have reached an agreement on a spending bill to keep the US government running until 30 September. The bipartisan deal boosts military spending but does not include funding for President Donald Trump&#8217;s proposed wall on the Mexico border. The reported $1 trillion deal (\u00a3770bn) needs to be approved by lawmakers. On Friday Congress [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[6712,5688,109,6713],"class_list":["post-315272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-international","tag-chuck-schumer","tag-republicans","tag-trump","tag-us-budget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=315272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315272\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=315272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=315272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=315272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}