Congress Passes Controversial Spending Package
Monday, December 15th, 2014December 15, 2014
The U.S. Senate, in a 56-40 bipartisan vote, passed a $1.1-trillion spending measure on December 13 that funds the government through September 2015. The House of Representatives passed the funding bill by a vote of 219 to 206 on December 12. Various measures within the legislation were opposed by both sides of the aisle.
Opposition on the right was led by Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who attempted to hold up the bill to confront President Barack Obama on his executive actions on immigration. Backed by other conservative senators, Cruz wanted an amendment inserted that would cut off funds to the Department of Homeland Security, making it impossible for the department to carry out President Obama’s executive order to relax deportations.
On the left, some Democratic senators led by Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts opposed the bill because it rescinded a provision in the 2010 financial reform law regulating national banks. That provision had barred institutions with deposits insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation from dealing in the kind of exotic securities that played a big role in the financial crisis of 2008. Wall Street banks and other giant financial institutions had relentlessly lobbied Congress for the repeal of that provision.
Also buried in the giant spending bill was a provision that prohibited the federal government from requiring less salt and more whole grains in school lunches. Those requirements and other higher nutritional standards for school lunch programs had been championed by First Lady Michelle Obama.
Additional World Book articles:
- Economic Crisis: The Banking Meltdown (a special report)
- Economic Crisis: The Government Jumps In (a special report)