Aumua optimistic about compromise bill to avert another shutdown

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Congress is speeding toward expected passage of a bi-partisan House-Senate spending deal, the president’s expected to sign, to avert another government shutdown.

KHJ News Washington DC correspondent Matt Kaye reports, enactment would clear the way for other legislation to fund Gita disaster aid for American Samoa.

Enactment of the $324-billion bill to fund nine Cabinet Departments and dozens of other agencies would avert another partial government shutdown tomorrow night, avoiding further pain after the 35-day December/Januarylapse.

The bill falls well short of what President Trump requested for a southern US border wall but gives him more than many Democrats wanted.

Trump may reluctantly sign it, but vows to build a wall anyway by reprogramming other money.

American Samoa’s Republican Congresswoman Aumua Amata Radewagen is optimistic the compromise will pass, clearing the decks for a disaster aid bill—

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Aumua says the Senate could simply pass the House version or amend it and send it back to the House.

The Congresswoman says Senate Appropriations Chair Richard Shelby seems ready to support and act on supplemental disaster aid, after Congress and the President enact the shutdown-averting bill.

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The separate House-passed disaster bill got tangled up in border wall-government shutdow npolitics, when Democrats inserted an amendment to fund affected departments bu tnot include wall funding the president wants.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell then blocked the bill, raising the need for the Senate to amend it and send it back to the House, once the bigger bill to keep the government open is passed and signed.