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The spending bill is geared toward combating threats from afar, with roughly $5.4 billion in emergency funds to fight Ebola in West Africa, nearly $74 billion for wars and other overseas operations, and more than half of the overall package going to military spending. ... The final deal amounted to what one Democratic aide called a “split decision” likely to leave both sides unhappy. For instance, the bill would nullify the District of Columbia’s referendum to legalize marijuana, but it would allow Washington to decriminalize the drug, meaning possession of small amounts would no longer be punished. ... Democrats fought off Republican efforts to scuttle Michelle Obama’s rules on nutritional content of school lunches, but Republicans secured flexibility on the use of whole grains. (Parker and Weisman, 12/9)

At 1,603 pages, the bill includes at least $1.2 billion for agencies to deal with the influx of unaccompanied immigrant children who crossed the U.S.-Mexico border. There’s also money to fight the rise of the Islamic State and $5.4 billion to fight the threat of Ebola. ... The Department of Health and Human Services would receive $948 million to provide health and education services to the unaccompanied children — an $80 million increase. (O'Keefe, 12/9)

The $1.1 trillion spending bill released by the House on Tuesday evening expands funding for international health efforts on AIDS and Ebola both at home and abroad. But it has relatively little impact on other domestic health care issues, and key elements such as the Medicare “doc fix” got rolled into next year. (Norman and Wheaton, 12/9)

Failure to replace Medicare's oft-criticized physician payment formula has shifted federal attention away from other necessary health reforms, witnesses told a House hearing on Tuesday, further stoking the debate over advancing permanent "doc fix" legislation in Congress. ... Witnesses at a House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee hearing urged lawmakers to find a permanent solution for avoiding the scheduled cuts facing Medicare physicians on March 31. Some of their recommendations for offsetting the cost include identifying overpriced services, instituting payment updates that are higher for primary care than specialty care and establishing a primary care bonus that is funded by non-primary care services. (Zanona, 12/9)

A tussle over contraceptives has ended with Democrats keeping an attachment pushed by House conservatives out of a trillion dollar government funding bill. Conservatives had asked their party leaders to attach a policy rider to the funding bill that would have allowed corporations potentially to duck contraceptive coverage rules under Obamacare. (French, 12/9)

Republicans will have to wait a little longer, until they officially take control of the Senate, to try to pass cuts directly related to Obamacare: Funding is flat in the spending bill. (Faler, 12/10)