Senate clears one budget hurdle, but gridlock remains

The Senate on Tuesday managed to pass a $182 billion spending bill to fund a handful of federal departments in 2012, but partisan gridlock still threatens to keep Congress from accomplishing its most basic job: writing a budget.

The spending bill passed today by a vote a 69 to 30 bundled three spending measures for Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Transportation; as well as housing and science appropriations.

The bill met the budget requirements Congress set in the debt ceiling deal it struck over the summer, which called for a $1.043 trillion discretionary spending cap in 2012. While that cap cuts about $7 billion from the federal budget, it's not enough for some Republicans to support it -- the 30 votes against the bill today all came from the GOP.

The bill had to clear a number of hurdles to pass in the Senate, as the Hill reports, including an attempt from Tea Party-backed Sen. Mike Lee of Utah to take it off the Senate floor and send it back to committee.

Before the budget bill can be signed into law, the Senate will have to work with the House to create a version both chambers can agree to.

Republican leaders in the House have their own problems with the 2012 budget. Dozens of conservative Republicans are reserving their support for budget bills with spending cuts that exceed the amount agreed to in the debt ceiling deal. That means the House GOP may have to rely on some Democrats to pass spending bills.

But hundreds of House Democrats made clear today they're unhappy with the so-called "policy riders" that Republicans have attached to the budget bills. Several of those riders "are not only controversial but blatantly partisan," said a letter sent to House Speaker John Boehner today, signed by 182 Democrats. The riders roll back some regulations and block the implementation of part of President Obama's health care overhaul, among other things.

"It is important that Republicans not risk a government shutdown by playing politics with appropriations bills," the letter says. "Democrats oppose the inclusion of controversial policy riders, which are unlikely to pass the Senate, and we urge you to see that they are removed."

While both the House and the Senate have passed some 2012 budget bills on their own, none of the 12 required spending measures have passed through both chambers yet.

The federal government is currently operating on a temporary budget Congress passed in October, but that expires on November 18. If Congress fails to pass budget measures by that date, the government risks shutting down, but it's likely lawmakers will pass another short-term measure until its issues can be resolved.