Five Important Features Of Congress' New Spending Bill

House and Senate negotiators came to an agreement on a $1.1 trillion spending bill last night.

The bill includes $573 billion for defense spending when overseas contingency funds are included and $525 billion for non-defense discretionary spending.

The bill runs more than 1,500 pages and sets out funding measures for programs all across the government.

It took a month of hard work by appropriators and their aides to draft the entire thing.

Even with all of that, it won't quite be ready by the time the current continuing resolution expires so the House will take up a three-day CR today.

Here are five key features of the bill:

1. Environmental regulations delayed - Remember two weeks ago when the ban on incandescent light bulbs signed by President Bush was taking affect? Well the bill specifically bans enforcement of the efficiency standards, a victory for conservatives. The bill also prevents the Export-Import Bank from restricting financing to coal-powered power plants that don't cut carbon emissions.
2. Education funding holds steady - In a win for the administration, the bill fully restores funding for Head Start to $8.6 billion, more than $600 million above its 2013 appropriated levels. The legislation also allows the Education Department and Department of Health and Human Services to jointly give out $250 million in grants for high quality pre-school programs for low-income families.
3. Science funding comes in below target - Scientists are upset today as the National Institute for Health (NIH) did not receive the funding it was seeking. The bill funds the NIH at just under $30 billion, a $1 billion increase from its 2013 post-sequestration level, but still less than its budget from any year between 2009 and 2012. The National Science Foundation (NSF) also is disappointed with its $7.2 billion budget, $68 million under its target.
4. Financial regulators inhibited by small budgets - The Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and Security Exchange Commission (SEC) are both funded at levels well below what they requested. The CFTC will receive $215 million, nearly $100 million below its request. The SEC will receive $1.35 billion. Conservatives have often attempted to cut the funding of different regulators as a way to reduce their power.
5. Extra funding for Afghanistan included - You may be wondering how the Murray-Ryan budget deal, which set 2014 spending at $1.012 trillion, became a $1.1 trillion omnibus spending bill. It's because of overseas contingency funds. In this case, an additional $92 million was added for operations in Afghanistan and for relief for Syrian refugees.