Rogers: Deal Reached on Spending Bill

After weeks of tough negotiations, House Appropriations Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky., announced late Monday that lawmakers worked out a deal on nine spending bills by putting them into one piece of legislation.There are still Republican "policy riders" in the package that Rogers declined to comment on the specifics, but he stressed it will passed before the December 16 deadline."We'll get it done by the 16th," he said.From the Wall Street Journal: The nine bills would provide the funding and broadly divvy it up for the rest of fiscal year 2012, after Congress earlier passed a series of short-term stopgap measures. The bills had been expected to be released Monday night, but staff had to iron out some technical wrinkles. (SNIP) In order to handle the sheer heft of the bills, the House Appropriations and Rules committees had to acquire new scanners, though staff said the previous machines had already been in a state of steady decline and the upgrades were already planned.