Congressional leaders say they have agreed on a roughly $1 trillion spending bill that will fund the U.S. government through the end of the 2014 budget year.
Shaking off three years of a bitter partisan freeze, Democratic and Republican negotiators unveiled the $1.012 trillion spending deal Monday night.
The proposed deal rolls back pension cuts to disabled veterans, lowers other government spending agency-by-agency and could be the biggest policy decision Congress makes in an otherwise gridlocked year.
The measure follows the guidelines laid out in the budget agreement Congress passed in December.
In a joint statement, the Republican and Democratic leaders of the House and Senate appropriations committees said the bill “keeps the government open and eliminates the uncertainty and economic instability of stop-gap governing.”
Two other highlights will likely ring out in news releases from both parties in the next few days:
— First, the bill protects disabled veterans from cuts to the cost-of-living allowances hitting some other military pensions.
— Secondly, it applies budget cuts in a more thoughtful agency-by-agency manner, as opposed to the across-the-board sequester that hit last year.