WASHINGTON (AP) – Acutely partisan and all but dysfunctional, Congress has completed its most elementary task after an intense weekslong struggle, finalizing a deal to fund the government just days ahead of a shutdown deadline.
The legislation extends existing spending levels a mere 10 weeks, past Election Day, while finally addressing the Zika crisis with $1.1 billion and providing long-sought help for the residents of Flint, Michigan, as well as flood victims in Louisiana. After a last-minute burst of deal-making, the legislation passed the Senate on a 72-26 vote Wednesday and was backed by the House 342-85 in a late-night vote Wednesday.
It was a conclusion in sight and within reach since lawmakers returned from their summer recess just after Labor Day. But with the Capitol awash in election-year politics and shadowed by the contentious presidential race and engulfed in a fierce battle for control of the Senate, the simplest task became a nearly impossible heavy lift impeded by needless delays and bitter finger-pointing.
Republicans, defending a fragile Senate majority and eager to get a handful of vulnerable incumbents back home to campaign for re-election, accused Minority Leader Harry Reid of holding up a deal to keep GOP lawmakers off the campaign trail.
“The Democrats are determined to keep us here as long as they can,” groused one at-risk Republican senator, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.