House Finishes Year in a Blaze of Controversial Legislation

[1]Yesterday, in what most news organizations are calling a "flurry" of legislative action, the House passed a relatively large package of contentious bills, including the Defense appropriations bill, an increase to the debt limit, and a jobs bill. The Defense bill, originally thought to be the most difficult of the four bills, easily sailed through the House, 395 to 34, and the Senate immediately began its debate on the bill. The other two bills, however, proved to be much closer, and foreshadow legislative confrontations in the beginning of 2010.

Perhaps most importantly for the fiscal health of the nation, the House agreed to lift [2] the debt ceiling by $290 billion, to $12.4 trillion. Without the increase, the nation would run out of money and begin defaulting on its debts in two weeks, sending a significant shock throughout the world's economy. Considering the consequences, the House vote was surprisingly close, 218 to 214, with 39 Democrats joining all 175 Republicans in voting against the debt increase.

The vote yesterday only pushes the issue down the road, as the $12.4 trillion ceiling will only last until February of 2010. The $290 billion increase buys time for House leaders to negotiate a larger, more permanent solution, such as increasing the debt ceiling by some $2 trillion, early next year.

Shortly after increasing the debt ceiling, the House also narrowly passed [3] a $150 billion jobs package, 217 to 212. The bill includes [4] $48.3 billion in infrastructure projects, $26.7 billion for public sector jobs (teachers, fire fighters, police officers, etc), and $79 billion for social safety net programs such as unemployment insurance, COBRA, and Medicaid. Although it isn't in the legislation, Congress intends to pay for the jobs package using unspent TARP authorization funds, although it's unclear if the savings would cover the entire package.

The Washington Post called the jobs bill [5] "largely symbolic," since the Senate, which is fully consumed with health care and the Defense appropriations bill, will not be able to get to the bill until sometime next year. Further imperiling the bill's future, it may be attached to a "pay-as-you-go" provision when brought to the Senate, a measure which the House originally passed in July but should prove controversial in the upper chamber. Regardless, the bill, in conjunction with the delayed vote on a higher debt limit, does ensure that a significant portion of the next legislative year will be taken up by fiscal policy.

Finally, the House also passed a continuing resolution for Defense, since even though it passed the department's full appropriations bill, the Senate is not expected to pass the bill before the original continuing resolution expires at the end of the week. The new continuing resolution passed the House by voice vote.

Image by Flickr user chrisjohnbeckett [6] used under a Creative Commons license.