House passes spending bill, averts shutdown

House Democrats derailed plans for a Thursday afternoon vote on a $1 trillion government spending package after lawmakers rebelled against the inclusion of provisions tucked into the measure to roll back Wall Street regulations and ease campaign finance laws.

The uprising created a rare moment of intraparty warfare, pitting House Democrats against President Obama, who had announced support for the bill.

In a blistering speech on the House floor, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., characterized the package as a "moral hazard" and said she was "enormously disappointed" in the president.

The White House dispatched chief of staff Denis McDonough to meet privately with House Democrats in an effort to shore up support for a package that would fund most of the government through September.

Party leaders scrambled late Thursday to approve a stopgap funding measure for a few days to ensure the government did not shut down at midnight.

GOP leaders and the White House were caught off guard by the Democratic opposition, because the carefully negotiated packaged had input from lawmakers in both chambers and both parties before it was unveiled Tuesday night.

However, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., came out in strong opposition to the bill because it includes a rollback of a regulatory provision of the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial services overhaul that supporters said was meant to shield taxpayers from future risks from complex financial trades.

Pelosi and leading House Democrats quickly joined the opposition. A provision that greatly increases the amount private donors can give to fund political conventions also incensed Democrats who saw it as a further giveaway to special interests.

Other Democrats voiced strong support for the package, which includes many Democratic initiatives, and said scuttling it would only result in a more conservative package next year when Republicans take full control of Congress.

Retiring Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., a member of the Appropriations Committee, said it would be a "travesty" if Democrats scuttled the bill in favor of a stopgap spending measure until early next year.

The funding behemoth includes 11 of the 12 annual spending bills for the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, and one short-term funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans insisted on a short-term DHS bill because they want another opportunity next year to battle the president over his recent executive order on immigration.