Washington – Congressional leaders announced a widely anticipated government funding package early Thursday, ending a months-long funding row that lawmakers hope will end a partial government shutdown ahead of a Friday night deadline. It opened a way to avoid it.
The $1.2 trillion package includes six bills, more than 1,000 pages, and provides funding for the Departments of State, Homeland Security, Defense, Labor, and Health and Human Services, as well as foreign operations, financial services, and the Legislature. Also includes funds for. . If approved, the package would avert the threat of a government shutdown until October 1, when the next fiscal year begins.
This package offered something to advertise on both sides of the aisle. House Speaker Mike Johnson celebrated the policy in a statement early Thursday, saying “House Republicans achieved important victories on conservative policies” during this year's spending process.
“This FY24 spending bill takes serious steps to strengthen our national defense by focusing the Department of Defense on its core mission while expanding support for the brave men and women who serve in uniform,” said Prime Minister Johnson. This is an initiative.” “Importantly, funding will be stopped for the United Nations agencies that employed the terrorists who took part in the October 7 attack on Israel.”
This was announced early Wednesday by multiple sources familiar with the negotiations. confirmed to CBS News. The package includes a ban on all direct U.S. funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the main humanitarian agency working in Gaza.
This comes after the Biden administration said in January that: Temporarily suspend new funding to UNRWA A United Nations investigation into Israeli claims that 12 personnel took part in the deadly Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel that killed at least 1,200 people is pending.
Prime Minister Johnson said the proposed package would strengthen U.S. immigration and customs enforcement powers. capacity It has 34,000 to 42,000 beds and funds approximately 22,000 Border Patrol agents.
“Additionally, this bipartisan agreement to fund the Department of Homeland Security will advance the Department's work to enforce our border and immigration laws,” Johnson's statement said. “Significantly reduce funding to NGOs that encourage illegal immigration, and increase capacity and the number of Border Patrol agents in line with the House-passed spending bill and Border Security Act.”
Negotiators struggled to reach an agreement on the measure early in the week, with DHS funding a bottleneck that pushed them past their goal of reaching an agreement over the weekend.But the leaders announced On Tuesday morning, they announced they had reached an agreement.
This year's spending bill has been a particularly thorny issue for lawmakers, and the disagreement has taken on new meaning as Congress continues to debate how to deal with border security.
Sen. Patty Murray, the Senate's top Democratic appropriator, touted the package in a statement, calling it a “bipartisan compromise” that will “move our country forward.”
“We will defeat sweeping cuts that will hurt American families and the economy, restrict Americans’ basic freedoms, harm consumers, and give giant corporations an unfair advantage. “We've defeated a number of extreme policies that gave and reversed policies. It's a historic clock on climate action,” Murray said, praising provisions related to child care, mental health care and medical research costs, among others. he said.
There is still work to be done. The release of the text of the bill begins a tight schedule to approve the bill by midnight Saturday morning and avoid a partial government shutdown. House members typically have 72 hours to consider bills before voting. But that schedule is expected to collapse as the shutdown deadline approaches, potentially infuriating some House conservatives already unhappy with the spending deal.
The House is expected to pass the bill, with rules suspended, and would require support from two-thirds of the chamber. And despite pushback from some House conservatives over the bill, Democrats are expected to work with the majority House Republicans to pass the bill before sending it to the Senate.
In the Senate, a single senator has the power to move slowly along the path to passage, so legislation would need unanimity to move quickly. If problems arise, additional short-term measures may be needed to maintain government funding, which may otherwise lapse for some agencies.
“With bipartisan cooperation, we can pass this bill on time,” Murray said Wednesday. “We need to turn the page on FY24, take government off autopilot, and focus on passing these bills by midnight Friday.”
Lawmakers are scheduled to leave Washington for a two-week recess starting next week. If a problem arises, lawmakers will likely have to work on weekends.
Some senators expressed frustration with the lack of time. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, argued for the continuation of a resolution that would continue funding the government for several weeks while allowing time for debate.
“This is just common sense,” Lee said. “Give the people the people elected to Congress the opportunity to participate in the legislative process, because that's definitely not what they're going to do now.”
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., said she would likely vote against the package “just because I don't even have time to look at it.”
The language and expected votes on the package move Congress closer to resolving a months-long government funding dilemma.This package is the second of two — Rep. approved Earlier this month, it provided funding to partially cover the government.
“We had to get the appropriations process done, and I'm happy to say it's nearing its end,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a news conference Wednesday morning. “I think the final product is one where we were able to accomplish a number of important provisions and move in the direction that we want to go, even though we are a historically small minority.”
Johnson said once the spending process is fully resolved, attention will turn to additional funding in the House of Commons. The White House has pushed for additional funding for U.S. allies such as Ukraine and Israel in recent months, and the Senate approved the funding package earlier this year. However, Prime Minister Boris Johnson opposes bringing the bill to a vote in the House of Commons.
He said the conference was exploring “many avenues” to address complementary issues.
Margaret Brennan contributed to this report
