The House narrowly passed a $1.1 trillion spending package last night that would fund most government operations for the fiscal year, the New York Times reported today. The accord was reached just hours before the midnight deadline, in a 219-206 vote, and the legislation now heads to the Senate, which is expected to pass it in the coming days. A split in the Democratic Party was shown in the process when Representative Nancy Pelosi, the minority leader and one of President Obama’s most loyal supporters, broke with the administration over a provision in the bill that would roll back regulation of the Dodd-Frank Act, which Pelosi said was a giveaway to big banks whose practices helped fuel the Great Recession. She spoke on the House floor in the early afternoon, expressing her strong opposition to the bill. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. were pressed to make a furious round of phone calls to try to persuade wavering Democrats, while House Speaker John A. Boehner worked to get more Republican votes. The final vote was a blow to Pelosi, the liberal wing of the party and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who led the charge against the Dodd-Frank rollback.
