Senate Passes The Cromnibus And What It Actually Contains

So, in addition to the now infamous Derivatives provision, what else does the Spending Bill contain? Here courtesy of The Hill is a breakdown of its main spending components:

The bill includes language repealing part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law that will allow banks covered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to directly engage in derivatives trading.  This set off the biggest political storm for the legislation, as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led a liberal insurrection against the White House, which decided not to fight Republicans over the measure.

Wall Street lobbied for the change, and the bill will be sent to Obama with the language in it.

Campaign finance

The bill also raises the limits on what people can give to political committees each year, greatly increasing the money wealthy people can donate. The provision would allow a wealthy donor to contribute a total of more than $1.55 million to a national party.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) lambasted the change in a floor speech in which she broke with the White House over the bill.

DC marijuana

The bill prevents Washington, D.C., from implementing a new referendum that legalizes recreational use of marijuana.

D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton complained that it was another example of Congress stepping on local rule, but she won few allies for her position in Congress.

Sage grouse

The bill would prevent the government for one year from listing the sage grouse as an endangered species in an effort to protect oil-drilling projects.

School lunches

The legislation relaxes school nutrition standards championed by first lady Michelle Obama.

One change would allow schools the flexibility to implement whole grain nutrition standards, while another prevents new standards to reduce sodium from taking effect until additional scientific studies are conducted.

The White House said it could live with the changes.

Pensions

The bill permits trustees of underfunded pension plans to adjust benefits, saving troubled plans without a federal bailout.

But the language crafted by House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.) and ranking member George Miller (D-Calif.) could lead to cuts in the pensions of people covered by the plans.

ISIS

In a victory for the White House, the bill contains $64 billion for the Pentagon to use for its overseas contingy operations, including the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

It allocates $5 billion from that fund for the administration to fight the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria — slightly less than what the White House had requested.

Ebola

The bill meets another administration demand by including $5.4 billion in emergency funding to fight Ebola. While that’s not as much as the $6.2 billion requested by the White House, the inclusion of the funds bolstered Obama’s support for the measure.

Body cameras

The bill doesn’t contain funding for body cameras for police, which Obama had requested after the outcry over police killings of two black men, and grand jury decisions not to indict the officers involved. The spending package does provide funding for other related community policing programs.

The bill also doesn’t include funding for high-speed rail, for the Obama administration’s “Race to the Top” education program and for the International Monetary Fund.