Washington — The House is debating a massive spending package Friday ahead of a vote to fully fund the government through September as time runs out to avoid a partial government shutdown. .
The $1.2 trillion package is announced Within 48 hours before the shutdown deadline, six spending bills would be combined into one, funding about three-quarters of the government through the end of the fiscal year.Another package to fund the rest of the government. passed by parliament 2 weeks ago.
House passage moves Congress one step closer to ending a spending battle that has been going on for six months into the fiscal year. The dispute has forced lawmakers to repeatedly rely on short-term funding extensions to keep the government running since October.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, waived a voluntary 72-hour rule that gives lawmakers time to read a bill before a vote to send it across the finish line to the Senate, giving the Senate little time. It took several hours. Before the clock strikes midnight.
The vote could be postponed until Saturday due to Senate rules that allow a single lawmaker to object to expediting a bill's passage. Republicans are also likely to demand a vote on the amendment in exchange for speeding up the process, as they did with previous funding bills. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, predicted the Senate could vote on the amendment as early as Friday afternoon.
A short loss of funds over the weekend may not cause any disruption. Earlier this month, when President Biden signed the first funding package hours after a similar shutdown deadline was set, the Office of Management and Budget said it was clear that a resolution was imminent and that government agencies should not close. The company said it would be able to continue normal business operations.
After delays caused by a dispute over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the House and Senate appropriations committees released a second package early Thursday.
Both Republicans and Democrats claimed victory with a package that would provide funding for the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, Labor and Health and Human Services, as well as foreign operations, financial services and the Legislature.
Democrats touted funding for child care and education programs, medical research, mental health care and an extension of the president's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, which is credited with saving 25 million lives worldwide.
“We have had to work within severe fiscal constraints, but this bipartisan compromise will move our country forward,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Senate Democratic appropriator, said in a statement.
Republicans emphasized funding for the Border Patrol and adding detention beds. Prohibition of funding Until March 2025, to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the main humanitarian agency working in Gaza.
The bill also includes several conservative policy wins. The bill blocks the federal government's ban on gas stoves, limits the flags that can be flown on U.S. diplomatic facilities, and retains provisions barring federal funds from covering abortion services.
“House Republicans have won important conservative policy victories, rejecting extreme Democratic proposals and imposing deep cuts to wasteful agencies and programs while strengthening border security and national defense,” Johnson said in a statement. .
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, told reporters Thursday that the “overwhelming majority” of conservative policy supporters were not included in the bill.
Alan He contributed to the report.
