Associated Press
President Barack Obama and congressional leaders forged a last-minute agreement late Friday night on a deal to cut about $38 billion in spending and avert the first federal government shutdown in 15 years.
Obama hailed the deal, a bit more than an hour before a midnight deadline, as “the biggest annual spending cut in history,” and Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said that over the next decade it would cut government spending by $500 billion. “This is historic, what we’ve done,” said the third man in the talks, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
They announced the agreement less than an hour before government funding was due to run out. The shutdown would have closed national parks and other popular services, though the military would have stayed on duty and other essential efforts such as air traffic control would have continued in effect.
Amid the biggest clash yet between Democrats and the resurgent Republicans who control the House, Obama had warned that a government shutdown would damage the economy’s recovery by putting government employees out of work.
The political stakes of a shutdown — which would affect an estimated 800,000 workers — were huge ahead of next year’s presidential and congressional elections. Republicans got most of the blame in the last government shutdown during Bill Clinton’s presidency, but there’s no assurance that will happen this time around.
Since taking control of the House in January, Republicans have vowed to slash what they described as out-of-control spending and curb the federal deficit. Democrats accused the Republicans of wanting to cut vital government services and pushing a social agenda.
The Democrats and the White House rebuffed numerous Republican attempts to curtail the reach of the Environmental Protection Agency and sidetracked their demand to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood, which provides family planning and other medical services.
Anti-abortion lawmakers did succeed in winning a provision to ban the use of federal or local government funds to pay for abortions in the capital district of Washington.
Racing to beat the deadline, lawmakers worked to pass an interim measure to prevent a shutdown, however brief, and keep the federal machinery running for the next several days.
The Senate acted within minutes, and House members were called into session to follow suit as midnight neared.
The deal came together after six grueling weeks and an outbreak of budget brinksmanship over the past few days as the two sides sought to squeeze every drop of advantage in private talks.
