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 As the funding deadline loomed, Republicans successfully
negotiated a number of policy provisions into the measure, including
easing of regulations ranging from the environment to financial
derivatives trading.
The measure was expected to be put to a House of Representatives
vote on Thursday. But to enable Senate passage, a short-term
extension of one or two days was being prepared, congressional aides
said.
"This bill will allow us to fulfill our constitutional duty to
responsibly fund the federal government and avoid a shutdown," House
Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said in a statement.
The measure largely keeps unchanged fiscal 2015 domestic spending,
while adding funds to fight Islamic State militants in Iraq and
Syria and to fight Ebola in West Africa.
It funds all government agencies through September 2015, except for
the Department of Homeland Security, which would be extended only
through Feb. 27. That move aims to give Republicans leverage over
the agency implementing Obama's immigration order.
Next year, when Republicans control both the House and Senate, they
intend to pass restrictions barring federal funds for Obama's plan
to let millions of undocumented immigrants stay and work in the
United States.
Current government spending authority expires at 12:01 a.m. EST on
Friday.
Negotiations were delayed by wrangling over a Republican effort to
block new curbs on derivatives trade that would require banks to
shift these activities to units that do not benefit from federal
deposit insurance and Federal Reserve loans.
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The compromise that ended up in the bill grants a reprieve for
derivatives trades on behalf of farmers and other commodity
producers, who had feared the rule would require them to put up more
collateral.
A bipartisan provision to shore up distressed multi-employer pension
plans and the government fund that guarantees them was taken out of
the bill and proposed as an amendment facing a separate vote.
Changes include raising insurance premiums for these plans and
allowing them to cut benefits for non-disabled beneficiaries under
75.
A six-year extension for a federal terrorism insurance backstop
created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was also excluded from the
funding bill and is being dealt with separately.
(Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by John Whitesides,
Tom Brown and Cynthia Osterman)
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