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The
bill, passed by a 211-198 vote largely along party lines in the
Republican-controlled House, provides $658.1 billion for the
Department of Defense and $44.3 billion for the Department of
Homeland Security, including roughly $1.6 billion for
construction of physical barriers along the U.S.-Mexican border.
The $31.4 billion allotted for the Department of the Interior,
the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Forest Service,
the Indian Health Service and related agencies cut the EPA's
funding by $534 million when compared to the prior fiscal year.
The funding measure also included a provision that would stop
the Internal Revenue Service from implementing a provision of
the 2010 Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare, that
imposes a tax penalty on individuals who elect to go without
health insurance.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, a member of Republican
leadership, said the funding measure would make "major changes
to the way Washington spends taxpayer dollars."
"Our funding legislation forces the government to do what it
ought to do and to stop doing what it shouldn't do," McCarthy
said in a statement, praising it for "strengthening our national
defense, veterans’ programs, and border security," and "cutting
abusive Washington agencies like the IRS and the EPA."
Democrats warned that the bill, which bundled together 12
separate funding measures and earned just one Democratic vote,
would need substantial revision in the Senate, where Republicans
hold 52 of 100 seats but most legislation requires 60 votes for
passage.
"These bills cannot be enacted into law because they cannot gain
Democratic votes," Democratic Representative Nita Lowey said in
a statement, calling the House-passed bill "inadequate and
partisan."
(Editing by Paul Simao and Bernadette Baum)
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