Lawmakers are spending plenty of money and are greasing the way for retired Gen James Mattis to be President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of defence as they race toward adjourning the battle-scarred Congress.
Stopgap spending legislation unveiled Tuesday evening would provide USD 10 billion for overseas military and diplomatic operations, while southern states like Louisiana, North Carolina, and Texas would receive the bulk of a USD 4.1 billion disaster aid package.
The temporary spending measure, scheduled for House and Senate votes later in the week, would keep the government open through April.
First, the Senate yesterday will vote to give final congressional approval to bipartisan legislation to battle cancer and opioid abuse, boost medical research, and speed drug approvals.
The USD 6.3 billion "21st Century Cures" measure would boost medical research and speed drug approvals. That measure also includes a USD 1.8 billion cancer research "moonshot" strongly supported by Vice President Joe Biden, as well as USD 1 billion over two years to prevent and treat abuse of opioids and other addictive drugs like heroin.
The spending bill, meanwhile, would prevent the government from shutting down this weekend and buy several months for the new Congress and incoming Trump administration to wrap up more than USD 1 trillion worth of unfinished agency budget bills.
Under current law, Congress would need to pass legislation next year to grant Mattis an exception from a law that requires a seven-year wait for former members of the military to serve in the post. Tuesday's provision would speed up action on the waiver though Democrats could still filibuster it.
The bill would also deliver USD 170 million in long-delayed help for Flint, Michigan, to fix its lead-tainted water system.
Democrats complained the GOP spending measure shortchanged New York City by giving it just USD 7 million for police overtime costs for protecting Trump, who lives in midtown Manhattan. And they complained that a provision to help retired Appalachian coal miners keep their health benefits for a few months was woefully inadequate.
The bill attracted attention as the final legislative locomotive to leave the station before Congress closes shop this year. Nothing else on Capitol Hill's agenda had the power to tow other unfinished legislation into law.
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