With less than three hours before a government shutdown, the House narrowly passed a massive spending bill late Thursday after a drama-filled day of vote counting and lobbying from the White House and Congressional leaders.
The measure passed by a 219-206 vote. The Senate must approve the bill before 11:59 p.m. to avoid parts of the government from shutting down.
House Democrats huddled Thursday night to discuss a way forward after the spending measure had prompted a public rift between the White House and progressive Democrats, who primarily object to the bill's inclusion of a rollback of financial reforms. Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, famed as a thorn in Wall Street's side, has branded those changes a 'bailout' for big banks at taxpayers' expense.
The White House said Thursday that, while the administration 'objects to the inclusion of ideological and special interest riders' in the bill, the president supports the overall legislation and will not veto it.
But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - who also opposed the inclusion of the banking changes - publicly slammed the bill, calling its loosening of financial regulations 'a ransom and a blackmail' and saying that she's 'enormously disappointed' that the White House is accepting its inclusion in the spending measure.
After GOP leaders postponed a scheduled 2pm ET vote, Pelosi told fellow Democrats they have increased their 'leverage' to amend the legislation and strip out portions they dislike, including an addition that raises donation limits to party committees.
'Well, here we are standing up to the White House and Harry Reid,' Democrat Louise Slaughter told NBC News. 'Good for us. They're wrong.'
While officials insist that they are not expecting a government shutdown despite the delay, the administration said that, 'out of an abundance of caution,' it is working with federal agencies to prepare for a lapse in funding.
Meanwhile, White House officials - including Vice President Joe Biden - are worked the phones to push passage of the bill, said a senior administration official. White House spokesman Josh Earnest also confirmed on MSNBC that President Barack Obama is also making calls. And White House chief of staff Denis McDonough went to Capitol Hill late Thursday to personally lobby Democrats to support the measure in a closed-door meeting.
The Democratic split is important because Republicans needed a boost of Democratic support to get the bill over the finish line.
Aides say that defections on the Republican side -- from conservatives who object to the bill because they say it doesn't do enough to curb the president's executive action on immigration.
The must still be passed by the Senate before 11:59pm Thursday to avoid a lapse in government funding. That could be procedurally easy - but only if no member objects to its passage.
If even a single senator holds up the process, it could drag on for days. But aides have also discussed quick passage of a two or three-day extension of the funding deadline in order to give lawmakers more time to pass the larger bill.
Here's a brief summary of what's in the massive spending bill.
Funding until September 2015 for 11 of 12 federal agencies. The Department of Homeland Security is only funded until early next year, setting up another spending fight over immigration in just a few weeks No new funding for the Affordable Care Act, but funding for the health care law is also not cut $5.4 million to fight Ebola abroad and prepare for potential outbreaks at home Changes to the 2010 Dodd-Frank banking reform bill concerning derivatives trading - lobbied for heavily by the banking industry Language prohibiting the District of Columbia from legalizing marijuana, which city residents greenlighted in a November ballot initiative by a wide margin Language raising donation limits to the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee from $32,400 per donor to $324,000 About $8 billion in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, a substantial cut from last year's funding that will likely force a hefty reduction in staffing $5 billion to fight the Islamic militant group known as ISIS A ban on the transfer of Guantanamo Bay prisoners to the United States Funding to aid the State Department, the Department of Health and Human Service and local school districts in immigration-related programs A cut of almost $350 million to the budget of the IRS Cuts to multi-employer pension plans Language allowing school districts more flexibility in instituting the nutrition standards championed by Michelle Obama NBC's Kristen Welker contributed to this report.
First published December 11 2014, 8:23 AM
Carrie Dann
Carrie Dann is a national political writer for NBCNews.com. She has worked for NBC and NBCNews.com since 2006. Dann writes about politics and Congress. Dann rejoined the web team after 18 months as a campaign reporter for NBC News, covering presidential and vice presidential candidates during the 2012 election. She also covered the 2007-2008 presidential campaign for NBC, including extensive reporting on the Iowa caucuses.Prior to her work at NBCNews.com, Dann was a staff reporter at CongressDaily, where she covered lobbying and government reform.A Virginia native, she now lives in Washington, D.C.
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