The House approved a “minibus” spending bill Wednesday to avert a partial government shutdown this weekend, despite opposition from conservative Republicans.
The $467.5 billion package is supported by 207 Democrats and 132 Republicans, and provides nine levels of funding for the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, and Military Construction. It remains at almost the same level until the 30th of the month.
The announcement was made by the appropriators of the House and Senate. 1,050 page bill On Sunday afternoon, Republicans praised the level of domestic spending due to budget cuts for federal agencies such as the FBI, while Democrats touted food and housing protection programs.
If another spending bill isn’t passed by then, funding for the Department of Defense, Health and Human Services, and others will run out at midnight on March 22nd.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) announced in January that he and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) will share the total federal spending for fiscal year 2024 after splitting the massive policy into two bills last year. We negotiated $1.66 trillion. .
Facing opposition, including from the conservative House Freedom Caucus, Johnson was forced to vote on the government funding bill on Wednesday under rules requiring a two-thirds vote in the House of Commons.
Conservative Senate Republicans have also voiced opposition to the policy, with Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) calling it “schumer minibus” urged members of the House of Representatives to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government at current levels.
As part of the deal reached last May in the fight to raise the debt ceiling, a government-wide 1% cut in discretionary spending would go into effect on April 30, if Congress passes a continuing resolution beyond that date. Become.
Johnson said the House Republicans’ two-vote majority was too close to risk a fight that could lead to a government shutdown, or that the caucus’s influence on the Democratic-controlled Senate and White House would be too close. He warned that he could not give him any power.
“We need to be realistic about what can be achieved,” Prime Minister Johnson said of the measures, which included a 10% cut to the Environmental Protection Agency, a 7% cut to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and a 7% cut to the Government. He emphasized the reduction to 6% cut to FBI.
Other conservative victories include a ban on the sale of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China and a ban on Justice Department investigations into parents who exercise their free speech rights at school board meetings. included.
But the Freedom Caucus urged its members to vote against the entire spending plan anyway, saying in a statement it would “give Democrats higher spending levels” and “infringe on nearly every Republican policy priority.” .
House Democrats whipped their members to vote yes on the bill, but the bill’s gun rights provisions also irritated Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who said he opposed the whole thing.
“We have bad news: Buried in the spending bill to be voted on this week is a terrifying new gun policy provision that would significantly roll back the firearms background check system,” Murphy said. Posted in X.
The rider prohibits the Department of Veterans Affairs from sharing a beneficiary’s name with the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System unless the veteran is deemed a danger to himself, as ordered by a judge.
“This cannot be allowed to surface. This provision could potentially allow 20,000 new severely mentally ill people to purchase guns each year, which would be a death sentence for many.” added Murphy. “It is unacceptable that this provision was pushed by Republicans. Democrats should not have acquiesced.”
Democrats avoided other Republican policy riders with the bill, including a provision banning access to the abortion drug mifepristone, and added 10% to the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food program for low-income applicants. won a billion dollar increase.
The House Appropriations Committee said, “While this bill certainly doesn’t have everything we hoped for, it does a great job of eliminating most of the extreme cuts and hundreds of harmful policy riders proposed by House Republicans.” I’m very proud to be able to say we defeated it.” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Democrat of Connecticut).
The Senate is expected to vote on the package by a deadline of midnight Friday.
Comes with post wire.
