$1.37T budget, debt deal OK’d in Senate, heads to Trump

By Andrew Taylor The Associated Press

5 years ago

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the Senate chamber for votes on federal ... — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the Senate chamber for votes on federal judges as a massive budget pact between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Donald Trump is facing a key vote in the GOP-held Senate later, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, July 31, 2019. Many conservatives in the Republican-led Senate are torn between supporting President Donald Trump and risking their political brand with an unpopular vote to add $2 trillion or more to the federal debt. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON —A bipartisan budget and debt deal has passed the Senate and is heading to the White House for President Donald Trump’s signature.

Thursday’s vote addresses a worrisome set of Washington deadlines as Trump’s allies and adversaries set aside ideology in exchange for relative fiscal peace and stability.

The measure would permit the government to resume borrowing to pay all its bills and would set an overall $1.37 trillion limit on agency budgets approved by Congress annually. It also would remove the prospect of a government shutdown in October and automatic spending cuts.

But a tea party senator, Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky, says the legislation really is a spectacular failure because it will add hundreds of billions of dollars to the country’s spiraling debt.