By Kristina Peterson and Laura Meckler 

WASHINGTON -- Congressional leaders reached an agreement Wednesday night on a spending bill that would fund the government until October, ending a protracted negotiation that left lawmakers little time to pass it before the currents funding expires at week's end.

Endorsed by the top four congressional leaders Wednesday night, the bill would lift spending for the military and a wide range of domestic programs, delivering political wins to both parties. The bill would implement the first part of the two-year budget deal passed last month, the third such agreement lawmakers have struck to wriggle out of spending curbs passed in 2011.

Lawmakers will now have only two days to consider and pass the 2,232-page bill before the government's current funding expires at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. Debates over immigration policy, health-care markets, gun control and infrastructure funding had all complicated the negotiations, which added days of delay to the bill's release.

"No bill of this size is perfect," House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said in a statement Wednesday night. "But this legislation addresses important priorities and makes us stronger at home and abroad."

Lawmakers and President Donald Trump agreed to the bill's $1.3 trillion funding level last month as part of a two-year budget deal. As part of that agreement, the bill unveiled Wednesday night would boost defense spending by $80 billion and domestic spending by $63 billion above limits set in 2011.

Democratic leaders applauded the bill's boost for domestic priorities, including funding increases for the National Institutes of Health, Head Start and child-care programs, opioid research and treatment, veterans' health care and infrastructure.

"From opioid funding to rural broadband, and from student loans to child care, this bill puts workers and families first," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a statement Wednesday night.

The bill's delayed release means that House GOP leaders will likely have to waive the chamber's normal requirements for how long a bill must be public before a vote. Many lawmakers criticized the back-room negotiations that produced the bill, leaving them with less than 24 hours before a House vote expected Thursday, with a Senate vote to follow.

"This whole process is an embarrassment and as bad as it looks to the American people from the outside, you ought to see it from the inside," said Sen. John Kennedy (R., La.)

The spending bill will face fresh hurdles in the Senate, where any one senator can block the chamber from speeding up its time-consuming procedures, as Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.) did last month over the two-year budget deal. Mr. Paul said Wednesday he hadn't yet decided how he would act this week.

The bill ends -- for now -- one of the most contentious fights between Democrats and Mr. Trump, by including $1.57 billion for construction of physical barriers on the border with Mexico and other security measures. Mr. Trump won funding for 33 miles of new fencing on the Texas border -- about half of what he requested. He also got funding for 60 miles of replacement or secondary fencing, which is built alongside existing barriers. That is more than he asked for but is also far less controversial.

Democrats won a number of concessions, particularly regarding immigration enforcement inside the U.S. The bill provides for minimal or no increases to enforcement officers and detention bed space and no punishments for sanctuary cities. In addition, the new border construction must use designs now in use, which rules out a solid concrete wall.

Some conservatives, upset that the bill didn't include more funding for the wall, urged Mr. Trump to veto the bill. The White House said Mr. Trump had discussed the spending bill with Mr. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.).

"The president and the leaders discussed their support for the bill, which includes more funds to rebuild the military, such as the largest pay raise for our troops in a decade, more than 100 miles of new construction for the border wall and other key domestic priorities, like combating the opioid crisis and rebuilding our nation's infrastructure," White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement ahead of the bill's release.

The bill doesn't actually fund a full 100 miles of border construction, even when replacement fencing is counted.

The spending bill included some of the first legislative steps to rein in gun violence, after a string of recent mass shootings. The legislation includes a measure from Sen. John Cornyn (R., Texas) to strengthen compliance with the national background check system for buying firearms. The bill would also end what gun-control advocates say has effectively been a ban on federal gun-violence research.

Those two changes "would be a very big deal, especially in the context of a Republican-controlled Congress and a Republican White House," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D., Conn.).

Meanwhile, the bill didn't end a dispute over how to pay for a new rail tunnel under the Hudson River connecting New York and New Jersey. The project's supporters say the federal government should pay for half of the project's $12.7 billion cost; the Trump administration says New York and New Jersey should pay for the majority of the work.

The spending legislation would provide $650 million to Amtrak for track improvements along its busy Northeast Corridor, an increase of $322 million from 2017, and direct $2.9 billion to discretionary grant programs, to which Amtrak and its partners plan to apply for funds to support the tunnel work.

The agreement ruffled conservatives, who wanted to see less funding for the tunnel and more for the border wall.

"It is troubling when we get a tunnel and we don't get a wall," said Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, a group of roughly three-dozen conservatives, which said Wednesday night that it opposed the bill. "The last time I checked, the president didn't make any promises about getting a tunnel at any of his campaign stops.". "The last time I checked, the president didn't make any promises about getting a tunnel at any of his campaign stops."

Congressional leaders included funding to strengthen election security to thwart Russian meddling in November's midterm elections.

Several fights were too thorny to be resolved in this bill. No funding was included to help stabilize the Affordable Care Act markets, after Mr. Trump cut off subsidies to insurers last year.

And lawmakers didn't agree on any extension of the Obama-era program shielding young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. Mr. Trump ended that program and gave Congress until early March to pass its replacement. But lawmakers and the White House failed to break an impasse over what immigration measures to pair with an extension of the program, disappointing many Democrats who had wanted to use their leverage to end the Dreamers' uncertainty.

"The final Omnibus budget gives Trump money for his wall and we get nothing for it," said Rep. Luis Gutiérrez (D., Ill.), referring to the spending bill. "Immigrants and Latinos got run over by the Omnibus and we have nothing in return."

--Ted Mann and Natalie Andrews contributed to this article.

Write to Kristina Peterson at kristina.peterson@wsj.com and Laura Meckler at laura.meckler@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 21, 2018 22:32 ET (02:32 GMT)

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