House Approves $1 Trillion Spending Bill

Money for everybody, at your expense

Party leaders pushed a massive $1.1 trillion spending bill for this year through the House on Wednesday, shunning the turmoil of recent budget clashes with a compromise financing everything from airports to war costs and brimming with victories and concessions for both parties.

The huge bill furnishes the fine print — 1,582 pages of it — for the bipartisan pact approved in December that set overall spending levels for the next couple of years. With that decision behind them, the measure sailed through the House with no suspense and little dissent — fueled additionally by lawmakers' desire to avoid an election-year replay of last fall's widely unpopular 16-day federal shutdown.

Approving the legislation "is showing the American people we actually are capable of working in a bipartisan manner," said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. He praised the bill for holding down spending and said passage would be "the responsible thing to do. It's the thoughtful thing to do."