The winners and losers of the new spending bill

1/14/14
 
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from The Washington Post,
1/14/14:

Congressional negotiators released the details of a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill that would fund federal agencies through the rest of the fiscal year and end the lingering threat of another government shutdown.

So, what’s in it? We quickly sifted through the legislation, consulted supporting documents from Democratic and Republican aides, and called out some of the more notable and controversial elements below.

Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.), who helped draft the agreement. (Getty Images)

ABORTION. The bill once again bans the use of federal funding to perform most abortions; bans local and federal funding for abortions in the District of Columbia; and federal dollars for abortions for federal prisoners; and bans the use of U.S. foreign aid on abortions.

AFFORDABLE CARE ACT. The agreement doesn’t provide any new funding to implement the health-care law and maintains current funding levels at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the primary agency overseeing the law. The bill slashes $10 million for the Independent Payment Advisory Board, often referred to by Republicans as the “unelected bureaucrats” or “death panels”.

AIRPORT SECURITY. The Department of Homeland Security will take a $336 million cut in funding, with most of the reductions at the Transportation Security Administration.

AFGHANISTAN. The measure includes $85.2 billion for military operations in Afghanistan, a $2 billion cut from fiscal 2013 due in part to ongoing troop reductions. But the agreement also withholds money for the Afghan government “until certain conditions are met,” including a decision to sign a new bilateral security agreement.

BORDER SECURITY. The agreement includes $10.6 billion for Customs and Border Protection, about $220 million more than the previous fiscal year. In a victory for California lawmakers and border security advocates.

EPA. Democrats successfully blocked attempts by Republicans to prevent the agency from regulating greenhouse gas emissions and to repeal new clean water regulations.

GITMO. The legislation bans the Obama administration from transferring terrorism detainees from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to facilities in the United States. It also prohibits any money from being spent to “modify any facility in the U.S. to house detainees,” a direct slap at attempts to build a terrorism detention site at a facility in Illinois.

IMMIGRATION. With the Obama administration still deporting thousands of illegal immigrants on a daily basis, there’s $2.8 billion for detention programs operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. That funding helps to pay for 34,000 beds for detainees, “the highest detention capacity in history,” according to the House Appropriations Committee. There’s also $114 million to continue funding the E-Verify program.

THE IRS. The scandal-ridden tax-collecting agency comes in for special scrutiny this year. There’s no funding “to target groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs or to target citizens for exercising their First Amendment rights.”

LIBYA. There’s a ban on foreign aid for Libya until Secretary of State John F. Kerry “confirms Libyan cooperation” with ongoing investigations into the September 2012 attacks on the U.S. compounds in Benghazi. The measure also includes additional money to upgrade several temporary diplomatic missions around the world.

NUCLEAR WASTE. Consistent with current policy, the agreement doesn’t provide any funding to further develop the Yucca Mountain site in Nevada. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other Silver State lawmakers have fought for years to keep the government from using the location for nuclear disposal.

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE. In a blow to those seeking to revamp the nation’s mail service, the legislation bars postal officials from ending Saturday mail delivery — a move endorsed by a majority of Americans — or from closing far-flung rural post offices

SCHOOL LUNCH. The agreement provides the Agriculture Department with enough money to provide an estimated 5.6 billion free or reduced-price school lunches and snacks for about 32.1 million eligible schoolchildren

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The winners and losers of the new spending bill