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It took until the 11th hour but just an hour before a government shut down was set to go into effect, Congress and the White House announced they had reached an agreement that would keep Washington open for business.
The deal stuck Friday includes more than $37 billion in cuts to federal spending and avoids the first government shut down in nearly 15 years.
President Barack Obama, who spoke about the agreement late Friday, hailed the deal as "the biggest annual spending cut in history," and House 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, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Lawmakers worked through midnight to get stop gap measures through the House and Senate in order to continue keep the federal machinery running while leaders hammered out the details of the budget.
A possible government shut-down had dominated headlines for the better part of the week with many worrying what would happen to their Social Security payments, paychecks and national parks. Some criticized Republicans for making it all about social issues while others said Democrats failed to budge on any issue.
On side issues — "riders," the negotiators called them — 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.
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 District of Columbia.
Leaders on both sides of the aisle insisted they never wanted to see the federal government shut down and argued that the other side was to blame for the delay in reaching an agreement. And according to new polling figures, Americans were in favor of an agreement as well.
Earlier Friday, Senator Pat Roberts spoke on the floor of the Senate in favor of finding a compromise and keeping the light on in Washington. He pushed for the Senate to vote on the House-passed funding measure.
“Kansans are now calling my office; have been all day, all week, and all year. Their message is clear: it’s time to stop spending money we don’t have. The House-passed measure is a small step in this direction and would keep the government from shutting down,” Robert said in his floor speech Friday. “The House of Representatives is doing what it’s majority pledged to do, what it was elected to do – reduce Washington spending. As a logical consequence, no surprise, the House passed a bill to bring government spending back down to 2008 levels. In March, the Democratic majority in this Chamber rejected these modest cuts in spending, and we’ve been operating under a series of short-term continuing resolutions ever since.”
Senator Jerry Moran, who criticized the government for allowing troops to go without pay if a shut down ensued, said the temporary measurers passed Friday provide enough time for lawmaker to finalize a long-term agreement.
“The goal of the short-term continuing resolution passed tonight is to provide sufficient time for the finishing touches to be put on an announced agreement between Republican and Democrat leaders on a longer-term spending measure for the remainder of fiscal year 2011,” Moran aid. “I am anxious to see the details of this agreement and hope it includes the necessary spending cuts. We need to move on to the significant discussion of reducing spending in 2012 and beyond, and set our country on the path toward a stronger economy and more jobs.”
It took until the 11th hour but just an hour before a government shut down was set to go into effect, Congress and the White House announced they had reached an agreement that would keep Washington open for business.
The deal stuck Friday includes more than $37 billion in cuts to federal spending and avoids the first government shut down in nearly 15 years.
President Barack Obama, who spoke about the agreement late Friday, hailed the deal as "the biggest annual spending cut in history," and House 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, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
Lawmakers worked through midnight to get stop gap measures through the House and Senate in order to continue keep the federal machinery running while leaders hammered out the details of the budget.
A possible government shut-down had dominated headlines for the better part of the week with many worrying what would happen to their Social Security payments, paychecks and national parks. Some criticized Republicans for making it all about social issues while others said Democrats failed to budge on any issue.
On side issues — "riders," the negotiators called them — 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.
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 District of Columbia.
Leaders on both sides of the aisle insisted they never wanted to see the federal government shut down and argued that the other side was to blame for the delay in reaching an agreement. And according to new polling figures, Americans were in favor of an agreement as well.
Earlier Friday, Senator Pat Roberts spoke on the floor of the Senate in favor of finding a compromise and keeping the light on in Washington. He pushed for the Senate to vote on the House-passed funding measure.
“Kansans are now calling my office; have been all day, all week, and all year. Their message is clear: it’s time to stop spending money we don’t have. The House-passed measure is a small step in this direction and would keep the government from shutting down,” Robert said in his floor speech Friday. “The House of Representatives is doing what it’s majority pledged to do, what it was elected to do – reduce Washington spending. As a logical consequence, no surprise, the House passed a bill to bring government spending back down to 2008 levels. In March, the Democratic majority in this Chamber rejected these modest cuts in spending, and we’ve been operating under a series of short-term continuing resolutions ever since.”
Senator Jerry Moran, who criticized the government for allowing troops to go without pay if a shut down ensued, said the temporary measurers passed Friday provide enough time for lawmaker to finalize a long-term agreement.
“The goal of the short-term continuing resolution passed tonight is to provide sufficient time for the finishing touches to be put on an announced agreement between Republican and Democrat leaders on a longer-term spending measure for the remainder of fiscal year 2011,” Moran aid. “I am anxious to see the details of this agreement and hope it includes the necessary spending cuts. We need to move on to the significant discussion of reducing spending in 2012 and beyond, and set our country on the path toward a stronger economy and more jobs.”
