Last night the House passed a $1.3T (that's Trillion - with a "T") spending bill to keep the lights on in government until September (the end of the fiscal year, and just over a month before mid-term elections). It has something in it for everyone to love, and something to hate. The Dems were able to get a few concessions, but not the ones we'd hoped for. Referenced from links here, here, here, here, here, and here:

• The CDC will no longer be barred from conducting gun violence research. This is a clarification to the 1996 "Dickey Amendment" (which prevents any funding to be used to promote or advocate for gun control) that gets renewed every year.


• Just over $1B for the border wall. This is way less than the $25B tRumpy was asking for. No word on whether the money was being provided by Mexico.


• Up to $541M for the New Jersey tunnel project. This is less than the $900M originally promised, but it means work can get restarted on it.


• A background check bill (Fix NICS). It provides funding for states and agencies to comply with the existing National Instant Criminal Background Check system and penalties for those that don’t comply..


• An additional $4B to fight the opioid crisis.


• An update to tax law to fix a provision that was detrimental to grain farmers. They must have pretty good lobbyists.


• An expansion of the low income housing tax credit


• An additional $80B for the military, including a 2.4% pay raise for the troops


• Nothing was included to protect the Dreamers.


• No funds were provided to subsidize health insurers, which should guarantee premiums go up again in the fall, just before the elections


• An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act that prevent employers from stealing workers tips via tip "pooling"


• Cuts $4.3B from the State Department. That's a reduction of $1.8B for operations, and the rest mostly in the form of reduction in aid to foreign countries.


• Maintains the EPA's budget the same as last year, despite requests from tRumpy to cut the EPA's budget

There may be other gems (or poisons) in the bill - it's hard to say because it is being rushed through the House in an attempt to prevent a 3rd (yes, that's right - a 3rd) government shutdown less than 3 full months into 2018. Republicans and Democrats alike are not too happy with that:

"Swampy" is an understatement when referring to Republicans and the current administration. Everything they do smells, and is murky as hell. Drain the swamp? Looking at you, voters in Nov 2018.