Congressional leaders managed to overcome partisan differences on Wednesday, to come to a two-year budget deal to increase the level of government spending by almost $300 billion, in an attempt to curb the fiscal policy arguing in Washington but which also widens the federal deficit.
The agreement, announced by the Democratic and Republican leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate, would see the caps on some forms of domestic spending, and defense funding lifted, as well as postponing a reckoning on the federal debt limit. It features no aspects relating to immigration, an issue that resulted in a government shutdown last month. The new spending, together with the tax cuts initiated by President Donald Trump, which Congress approved in December, will see the bulging deficit increase further and could cause problems in the House from Democrats, as well as fiscal hawks in the Republican Party.
Republican Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, said that the bill is the result of extensive negotiations between the White House and Congressional leaders. The plan has to be passed in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, both of which are under the control of the Republican Party, before it is then delivered to the White House, for signing into law by the President.
Democrats in the House of Representatives, including House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi, say they will not back the deal unless Republican House Speaker, Paul Ryan, promises to advance separate immigration legislation about Dreamers.