WASHINGTON -- Last week's events showed that lawmakers can assemble bipartisan majorities in the political center on big measures. The $1.1 trillion spending bill will finance most of the government through September, making a repeat of the 2013 shutdown unlikely.
The bill angered conservatives who wanted to block President Barack Obama's executive changes to immigration policy. And it displeased liberals who say it unwisely loosens restrictions on risky Wall Street practices.
But Obama and most congressional leaders called it an acceptable compromise, the type of accord once common in Washington. The only top congressional leader to oppose it was House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, and she stopped short of pressing her colleagues to kill it.
The Senate will be in a session a few more days to deal with tax breaks, nominations and terrorism insurance. When the new Congress convenes next month, Republicans will control both legislative chambers, not just the House.
Senate Democrats will use the same filibuster rules to block GOP measures that Republicans have used for six years. Republicans will hold 54 of the Senate's 100 seats. Measures being filibustered need 60 votes to advance.
Obama may decide to veto some bills that Congress passes. Overriding vetoes is extremely difficult, requiring two-thirds majorities in the House and Senate.
The 2016 presidential race, now underway, will complicate congressional politics. As many as five senators are considering joining the race. They include Republican Ted Cruz of Texas and Democrat Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Both tried to derail the spending bill for different reasons.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the party's 2008 presidential nominee, told CBS' Face the Nation on Sunday: "Unless we can show the American people that we can govern, then we're not going to elect a Republican president in 2016."
But it won't be easy, said Ron Bonjean, a former top GOP congressional aide. Even with Republican House and Senate majorities, he said, the GOP agenda "could grind to a halt in the Senate because it will take 60 votes to pass anything."
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the incoming majority leader, said the Senate will accomplish more because he will allow wider debate and more amendments to bills, which Democrats had sharply limited. He said Republicans are willing to make tough votes, even on Democratic amendments designed for political mischief.
"Partisanship itself has never been the problem," McConnell said in a statement Sunday. "The real problem has been a growing lack of confidence in the Senate's ability to mediate the tensions and disputes we've always had."
Former Democratic Senate aide Jim Manley said it won't be that simple. The conservative-dominated House, he said, "will send one bad bill after another to the Senate," putting McConnell in a bind. "It will either die in the Senate" thanks to filibusters, Manley said, "or by presidential veto."
In other news, Senate Democrats canceled a procedural vote on the nomination of Carolyn Colvin, Obama's pick to head the Social Security Administration.
Colvin's nomination first ran into trouble when a group of Republican senators said they would try to block it while investigators look into a $300 million computer project at the agency. The project, which doesn't work, predates Colvin's tenure -- she has been acting commissioner since February 2013. An inspector general's investigation is ongoing.
Information for this article was contributed by Stephen Ohlemacher of The Associated Press.
A Section on 12/15/2014