House Republicans unveiled a $1 trillion spending bill setting budgets for hundreds of government programs in a bid to force U.S. lawmakers to wrap up their work for the year. 
 
 Republicans aim to put the more than 1,200-page spending measure to a vote tomorrow, a move designed to give them an advantage in a separate battle with Democrats over extending an expiring payroll tax cut. 
 
 Passing the spending bill would let Republicans leave for their Christmas holiday, increasing pressure on the Democratic-controlled Senate to accept it as well as Republicans’ version of the payroll tax cut. Democrats have been holding up the legislation on concerns that approval would ensure the House recess, forcing them to accept both measures. 
 
 A short-term bill funding federal agencies expires tomorrow and without action by Congress, the government will partially shut down. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, a Kentucky Republican, said his colleagues want to break the payroll-tax stalemate. 
 
 “Hopefully, the Senate will act,” he told reporters yesterday. “But you know how they are. We’re not going to sit around here and wait two weeks, twiddling our thumbs, waiting for the Senate.” 
 
 Short-Term Measure 
 
 President Barack Obama’s spokesman Dan Pfeiffer said last night in a statement that lawmakers instead ought to pass a short-term budget measure to allow more time for negotiations on the budget bill and the payroll-tax plan. 
 
 “Given the magnitude of the legislation -- providing over $1 trillion dollars in funding -- coupled with the unresolved payroll-tax cut and unemployment insurance extension, Congress should pass a short-term continuing resolution,” Pfeiffer said. 
 
 Some Republicans expressed qualms about their party’s strategy. Representative Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican, said lawmakers will be asked to vote on legislation they won’t have enough time to read. “It goes against a lot of what we’ve said we were going to do,” he said. 
 
 The party’s campaign “Pledge to America” last year said “we will end the practice of packaging unpopular bills with ‘must-pass’ legislation” and “instead, we will advance major legislation one issue at a time.” 
 
 Oil Pipeline 
 
 Democrats are balking at some provisions in the House- passed payroll-tax plan, including plans to expedite construction of an oil pipeline from Canada to Texas, raising Medicare premiums for wealthier retirees and paring unemployment benefits. 
 
 The spending measure wraps together nine overdue appropriations bills funding almost 40 percent of the government, including the Departments of Defense, Labor, Education, Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and others. 
 
 Some House Republicans said yesterday they are unsure how many of their colleagues will support the budget plan, which has been criticized for spending too much. More than 100 Republicans, 40 percent of the chamber’s caucus, opposed a spending bill last month, forcing party leaders to rely on Democratic votes for passage. 
 
 Representative Tim Huelskamp, a Kansas Republican, said yesterday he was withholding judgment because he wasn’t sure what would be in the legislation, which was released early today. 
 
 ‘See What’s In It’ 
 
 “I’m not going to vote for something unless I have a pretty good idea of what’s in it and right now, we don’t,” Huelskamp said. “I’ve got to see what’s in it.” 
 
 The budget bill, combined with a related bill passed last month, would cap non-emergency discretionary spending at $1.043 trillion, according to the Republicans’ summary. That would be $7 billion less than last year and the second consecutive year appropriations have declined. 
 
 The cuts are larger when compared with inflation, currently 3.5 percent, and the increased demand for government services that comes with population growth. 
 
 More than half of the bill is comprised of the Defense Department’s budget, which would increase by $5 billion or about 1 percent to $518 billion. That doesn’t include an additional $115 billion in emergency war funding. 
 
 Foreign Aid 
 
 Some of the biggest cuts would come in foreign aid and international programs, one of the politically easiest areas to cut. Funding for the State Department, global health programs, economic assistance and other initiatives would fall by 13 percent, according to Republicans. 
 
 Pell grants, which help low-income families send children to college, would be cut by $11 billion over the next decade in part by tightening eligibility criteria. 
 
 The Environmental Protection Agency would see a 3 percent cut, which, when combined with reductions approved earlier this year, would mean an 18 percent cut from 2010, according to Republicans. The Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, would receive a 6 percent cut. 
 
 The bill also includes a number of policy “riders” including ones targeting the administration’s policies on travel and sending money to Cuba, energy-efficient light bulbs and public funding of abortions in Washington, D.C. 
 
 To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Faler in Washington at bfaler@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net ||||| Mitch McConnell says Harry Reid should talk to John Boehner. Reid says he wants to talk to Boehner to hash out a compromise on extending the payroll tax holiday and jobless benefits. But Boehner first wants Reid to show his hand by actually passing something. 
 
 The three top leaders in Congress met privately Wednesday evening, but they came away no closer to a deal. At the meeting, Boehner said he wouldn’t negotiate with Reid and that the Senate majority leader would have to work out a payroll tax plan with McConnell, according to two sources familiar with the meeting. 
 
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 Boehner’s position is “he can’t cut a deal with Reid. If he did, our guys would go nuts,” according to a Republican source. The source added that without a Senate product, House Republicans are negotiating among themselves, and rank-and-file Republican lawmakers are “keenly focused” on making sure that doesn’t happen. 
 
 Whether Reid and McConnell can cut a bipartisan deal — that can also pass the Republican-led House within days — will be the key question facing the leaders Thursday as they struggle to pass a payroll tax holiday, extend jobless benefits and approve more than $1 trillion in federal spending before adjourning for the holidays. Rank-and-file lawmakers in both parties are getting agitated over the inability of Congress to complete its most basic tasks without lurching into another crisis. 
 
 The latest effort to find a breakthrough came as Democrats were considering scrapping their millionaires’ surtax. But it was far from clear what else they’d give up and whether Republicans would return any concessions. 
 
 For every step toward a possible deal, there seemed to be a step backward: The White House put out a strongly worded statement Wednesday night calling on Congress to put off a mammoth $1 trillion government funding bill that Republicans had demanded as a condition for passing the payroll tax cut. 
 
 Instead, the White House wants a short-term spending bill, an idea many Republicans have scoffed at. 
 
 With a Friday deadline rapidly approaching, the developments created yet another picture of a dysfunctional Washington and a Congress with rock-bottom approval ratings that’s been defined by 11th-hour brinkmanship. Congress has until Jan. 1 to extend the payroll tax holiday before taxes go up for millions of workers, but lawmakers are trying to finish the year’s work by Friday’s scheduled adjournment. 
 
 There are still a host of contentious battles ahead that will need to be ironed out between the White House and congressional leaders — and blessed by the rank-and-file. At the forefront in the payroll tax fight are several controversial matters, including the construction of a new oil pipeline, cuts to health care programs, the scrapping of an environmental rule and shortening the duration of jobless benefits. 
 
 “The two biggest things are frustration with Washington’s gridlock and grave anxiety about some of the really bad ideas that are being foisted in Washington right now,” said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). “Those things really unnerve people at home.” 
 
 By Wednesday afternoon, each side had retreated to its respective corner: Reid and Senate Democratic leaders were meeting at the White House with President Barack Obama and weighing what concessions to make, including ditching the millionaires’ surtax that Republicans strongly oppose.
– In an effort to reach a compromise in one of the two year-end battles facing Congress, Democrats have decided to drop their demand for a surtax on millionaires to finance payroll tax cuts. Without a deal, 160 million workers will face an automatic Social Security tax increase on Jan. 1, but a quick bipartisan agreement on the legislation may be out of reach despite the Democratic retreat, AP notes. "I don't think it's much of a concession," a spokesman for John Boehner says. "It never had any chance of passing the Senate, let alone the House." Lawmakers are also battling over a separate spending bill, and the squabble threatens to force a federal government shutdown by this weekend. House Republicans have unveiled a $1 trillion spending bill providing budgets for hundreds of government programs. They aim to pass the bill tomorrow, allowing them to depart for their Christmas holidays, Bloomberg reports. Some Republican lawmakers, however, are wary of passing legislation that they haven't had time to read, and as leaders squabble, rank-and file lawmakers from both parties are complaining about Congress' inability to perform its most basic tasks, Politico notes.