House Passes Compromise Budget Bill

The House passed compromise legislation on Thursday to finance the federal government through the end of the fiscal year in September. The vote brought one budget clash to a close even as the two parties prepared for another. The vote was 260-167, with 59 Republicans breaking ranks with their party leadership to vote against the deal, which calls for $38 billion in spending cuts this year. The Republican defections, a result of opposition from conservatives who said the bill did not do enough to rein in spending, forced House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio to turn to Democrats to pass the bill and keep the government from shuttering.

The bill now moves to the Senate, where it is expected to pass quickly and be sent to President Obama’s desk.

After the vote on the budget measure, the House moved on to votes on two measures — one that would deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood and another to roll back the 2009 health care overhaul. Both are expected to pass overwhelmingly in the House, but fail in the Senate.

Early in the debate over the bill, Mr. Boehner took to the House floor to defend it and encourage its passage. “Is it perfect? No,” he said. “I’d be the first to admit it’s flawed. But welcome to divided government.”

Democratic leaders were equally unenthusiastic.

“The priorities that we have agreed to in this resolution are not my priorities,” said Representative Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the whip for the Democrats. “But we have reached an agreement.”

The measure, the product of negotiations among the White House, House Republicans and Senate Democrats to end a standoff that nearly led to a government shutdown, presaged the larger battles still ahead.

Next up in the House is the blueprint for a budget for the next fiscal year and beyond, the opening stage in a battle that will include huge entitlement programs like Medicare and Medicaid and that will be tied up in the politically and economically explosive question of whether to approve an increase in the federal debt ceiling.

As the debate wound down on Thursday, Representative Harold Rogers,Republican of Kentucky, said, “I just want this bill over with.”

Before the vote, Mr. Boehner pushed back against criticism that the agreement he struck with President Obama and Senate Democrats relied too heavily on budget gimmicks.

“These are real cuts,” Mr. Boehner said of the bill, adding that those who think some of the reductions are illusory because the money would not have ultimately been spent are “kidding themselves.”

As the House vote approached, the chief political question for Mr. Boehner was exactly how many members of the Republican majority would end up rejecting the compromise he negotiated, and whether the number would be large enough to represent an embarrassment for the new speaker.

The loss of 59 Republicans was not enough to torpedo the bill, but it was enough to put Mr. Boehner and his team on notice that fiscal conservatives would be in no mood to accept substantial compromises on coming budget votes.

Among freshman Republicans, 60 voted in favor of the bill, with 27 saying no.

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