What’s in, and not in, deal ending the government shutdown

FAN Editor

The deal to break through the Senate stalemate over immigration and border security that shut down the government is a bare-bones accord. It provides temporary funding to keep the government operating for just under three weeks.

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Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a stopgap spending measure. In return, Senate Republican leaders promised to soon take up immigration and other prickly issues.

A look at what the deal has and doesn’t have:

WHAT’S IN THE DEAL

—Short-term funding for the government through Feb. 8. The Republicans had been insisting on longer, at least a month.

—The long-delayed, six-year renewal of a popular health insurance program for children in low-income families. The program known as CHIP became an unshakeable pillar for the Republicans throughout the budget drama, and Democrats were hard-pressed to reject such a universally accepted plan.

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—Delays to three taxes under the Obama-era health care law: the medical device tax through 2019, the so-called Cadillac tax on generous employer-paid health care plans through 2021; and a tax on health insurance companies through 2019.

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WHAT’S NOT IN IT

—Any move to halt deportation efforts aimed at immigrant “Dreamers,” who were brought to the U.S. as children and are now in the country illegally. President Donald Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, or DACA, late last year, but he gave Congress until March 5 to pass legislation extending it. DACA protects some 700,000 immigrants from deportation.

—New funds to toughen border security, including money to start building Trump’s long-promised wall spanning the U.S.-Mexico border. The wall was one of his leading campaign promises, and a number of congressional Republicans have continually stressed border security in the budget talks.

—Longer-term funding for the government.

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