Agreement on a substantial $1.1 trillion bill to fund the U.S. government through September 2016 reportedly was reached this week among congressional leaders, according to House Speaker Paul Ryan and reported by CNN. Votes that would avert a Dec. 23 government shutdown are predicted to occur before lawmakers to leave Washington, D.C., for the holidays, according to multiple representatives who attended a closed door session with the speaker.
The deal would suspend two major Obamacare taxes, lift the ban on crude oil exports and reauthorize a health insurance program for 9/11 first responders. It also includes cybersecurity legislation and an overhaul of the visa waiver program, barring anyone who had visited Syria, Iraq and other possible terrorist hotspots in the last five years from entering the U.S. without a visa, according to CNN.
The White House released a statement Wednesday indicating President Barack Obama would sign the deal.
The agreement comes after weeks of negotiations, and according to The Daily Caller News Foundation reflects a 2,009-page omnibus package that would make 22 tax breaks permanent and extend dozens of other tax incentives.
"How can families and local businesses count on tax relief each year as long as Congress can't decide what's permanent and what's not? That confusion ends now, and our economy will be stronger for it," House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady said in a statement upon the bill's release.
"By delivering permanent tax relief, we're making it easier for Americans to keep more of their own money, find new jobs, and increase their wages."
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers said in a statement the road to this final bill has not been easy, but it has been an open process that followed 'regular order' to the maximum extent possible. "Over the course of the last year, the Appropriations Committee held over 100 hearings, and approved each of the 12 individual funding bills through an open committee process where dozens upon dozens of amendments were debated."
Public opinion pollster Patrick Caddell told Breitbart News Daily host Stephen K. Bannon the current $1.1 trillion omnibus bill is "the greatest disaster anyone ever saw because of the deals being cut."
Caddell cited bill elements are still being discovered, such as an increase in foreign visas. Caddell said he was referring to a provision that was outrageously "slipped into the bill" without the knowledge of many lawmakers.
"The strength of this country comes from its people and it has a political system that is run, now, to the exclusion of its people -- you have three quarters of the American people saying the government in Washington does not rule with the consent of the governed," he said.
Caddell added that he agrees with the premise that America today is closer to another revolution than at any time in recent history.
