Government shutdown: Congress battles ‘Cromnibus,’ debt crisis as new deadline looms

Congress is struggling to pass a massive spending package with less than 12 hours to go before a potential government shutdown.

In a sign of just how tough Thursday would be, House Speaker John Boehner had a hard time clearing a routine procedural hurdle in the House that would set up a vote on the bill later in the day. Republican leaders worked the floor, pressing lawmakers to change their vote so the $1.1 trillion spending package could get a vote later in the afternoon – it narrowly passed.

Photo/donkeyhotey donkeyhotey.wordpress.com

The new deal, nicknamed the “cromnibus,” would fund most of the government through September of 2015, except for the Department of Homeland Security. The Department of Homeland Security will be funded with a short-term continuing resolution through Feb. 27, allowing lawmakers to address President Obama’s executive action on immigration sooner than next September.

“This means no government shutdown, no government on autopilot,” Maryland Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski, chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday.

Some Democratic lawmakers are upset about last-minute provisions, including changes in campaign finance rules and to the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

One of the loudest critics has been Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who urged her House colleagues to oppose the trillion-dollar spending measure unless a provision rolling back limits on Wall Street banks is eliminated from the package, saying the item shows “the worst of government for the rich and powerful.”

“Who does Congress work for? Does it work for the millionaires the billionaires, the giant companies with their armies of lobbyists and lawyers, or does it work for all the people?” Warren asked Wednesday.

Congress must pass some type of spending bill by midnight to avert a government shutdown. If it looks like Boehner doesn’t have the support to pass the massive funding package, he could decide to pass a bill that simply keeps the government running at current spending levels for a few months and try again when Republicans control both chambers of Congress next year.

Internal battles among Republicans on spending bills are nothing new. Boehner routinely needs Democrats to help him pass funding bills. But this time House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi doesn’t seem in the mood to help.

“If we don’t finish this today, we’re going to be hear ’til Christmas,” Boehner threatened at a Capitol Hill press conference .

A House measure would then go to the Senate for approval.