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Look! Congress is finally trying to get work done

In a single bill this week, Congress attempted to fund almost the entire federal government, rewrite Wall Street regulations, expand political contribution limits, create a new manufacturing network and, among many other things, override the District's new marijuana law.

"We're doing more in eight days than we did all year," said Rep. James P. Moran, a retiring lawmaker from Virginia who supports the 1,600-page measure.

"I hate it, I hate it, I hate it, I hate it," said Sen. John McCain, Republican of Arizona,, a longtime opponent of year-end bills packed with disparate items under a must-pass banner.

For a Congress that will go down as the least productive in history, it's hard to imagine anyone criticizing the House and the Senate for trying to do too much. But this legislation, known fittingly as an "omnibus" bill for its attempts to accomplish everything, is demonstrating what happens when very little gets accomplished all year, and then lawmakers realize time is running out.

Officially, the $1.01 trillion omnibus plan cobbles together almost all of the annual bills that fund federal agencies because - after political considerations and policy differences delayed their earlier passage - Congress must approve a new spending outline or else the government will shut down.

The "power of the purse," as it's known under the Capitol dome, has always given lawmakers a chance to wade into almost any policy debate with the slight flick of a pen - now a computer keyboard - to increase, reduce or restrict funding for a government program that otherwise would not win a clear majority under the usual rules.

This legislation is ripe with many examples, such as language forbidding the Environmental Protection Agency from using money to issue new regulations for farm ponds.

The bigger, more surprising inclusions in the package are policy riders that are new measures or changes to existing laws. Some have been thoroughly debated in committees and others have barely been considered.

For more than a year, Sens. Sherrod Brown,an Ohio Democrat, and Roy Blunt a Missouri Republican, have championed the creation of manufacturing hubs nationwide linked to local industry and colleges.

The bill drew many bipartisan sponsors but was cast aside by Senate leaders who dedicated their time almost entirely to partisan bills designed to position their candidates for the November elections.

The measure is now tucked into the omnibus package.

Liberals are particularly upset by the process that led to the inclusion of a revision to the 2010 Dodd-Frank law that regulates large banks, relaxing constraints on how Wall Street firms engage in risky trades. It had been approved in the House Financial Services Committee on a wide bipartisan vote, then approved on the House floor with modest Democratic support, and it was attached to a spending bill in the House Appropriations Committee.

That gave Senate Democrats, who will head into the minority as a result of November's midterm elections, little leverage in negotiations. According to several sources, Democrats fended off several other policy riders that would have struck at the Dodd-Frank law but gave in on this provision when Republicans offered to increase funding for the regulatory enforcement divisions of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

"The Senate Democratic leadership realized this is our last few days when we have real leverage, so let's take advantage of it. Let's get these bills done," Moran said Wednesday.

Other Democrats viewed agreement to the spending bill as capitulation, especially because the legislation would allow for a new stream of six-figure contributions to the political party committees.

"Putting these two things in the same bill illustrates everything that's wrong with the political process right now: a giveaway to the special interests and then providing them the ability to more easily finance the process," said Rep. Chris Van Hollen , Democrat of Maryland, who opposed the measure.

Republicans were largely supportive of the proposal, even though it would violate many of the principles - cheaper, smaller, more transparent government - that helped them win control of the House in 2010 and of the Senate in November. It's a massive bill that almost none of the rank and file will have time to read, large portions of it were written behind closed doors and K Street's influence can be felt in many places even if there are few actual fingerprints.

"It's a terrible way to do business," said Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican and the incoming majority whip.

"It's ugly but I think it's gonna happen," Cornyn said.

If the bill passes the Senate, the soon-to-be GOP-controlled Congress will start the new year with a mostly clean deck and can begin focusing its fire on issues such as President Obama's executive action on immigration and portions of his health-care law - all without the specter of a looming government shutdown.

Cornyn reiterated the GOP's pledge to pass a budget framework in the spring and have the 12 funding bills move along at their own pace to avoid the major compilation of "unfinished business crammed into the lame-duck" session.

Those responsible for drafting this year's omnibus package are not running from their product.

"What we're talking about here is a monumental achievement," Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski , a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a floor speech Wednesday. "It is a monumental achievement for showing how we can work together, we can govern and we can get the job done."

Rep. Harold Rogers , a Kentucky Republican and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said that most spending bills had been aired in committee hearings or received floor consideration, suggesting that the most surprising riders were added by the bipartisan collection of leaders above their pay grade.

"Those were leadership decisions. We finalized our bill, the spending bill, and then leadership decided that they wanted to do these other items," he said.

Those boasts from Mikulski and Rogers prove that this legislation is not an orphan, but disproving the old proverb, it will not have 1,000 fathers even though its success is likely.

In the budget bill: School lunches, light bulbs, pot

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, talks with reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, as the Senate considers a spending bill. Associated press
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, as the Senate considers a spending bill. Associated press
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