Congress is scrambling to avoid a government shutdown Friday with a giant $1.7 trillion spending bill.
The 4,155-page document that was unveiled Tuesday includes $773 billion for nondefense discretionary spending and $858 billion for defense funding, a nearly 10% year-over-year increase for the military.
The defense spending is a big win for the GOP in the deal brokered by Senate Republicans and congressional Democrats. House Republicans, however, wanted Congress to punt the funding debate to next month when they have the majority.
The federal government is operating on a stopgap funding measure that expires at midnight Friday. A spending package must be passed and signed into law by the deadline to avoid a partial shutdown on Christmas Eve.
Senate leaders need to get all 100 senators on board to fast-track the bill to passage before funding runs out and winter storms hit Washington later this week, threatening lawmakers’ travel home for the holidays.
Senate Republicans boasted that the package boosts military spending while acting as a check on funding Democrats’ domestic agenda priorities.
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Some House Republicans have vowed revenge on any GOP senator who votes for it, threatening to wield their power in a slim majority. The conservative House Freedom Caucus cautioned in an open letter Monday night that it would block “any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill.” The caucus said that warning extended to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who helped orchestrate the deal.
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy, who is trying to win over a handful of conservative holdouts to become the next speaker of the House, endorsed the strategy.
“When I’m Speaker, their bills will be dead on arrival in the House if this nearly $2T monstrosity is allowed to move forward over our objections and the will of the American people,” the California Republican tweeted.
Democrats said it includes most of what they wanted while conceding they were forced to make significant concessions to Republicans. The package notably excludes, for example, an extension of the pandemic-era child tax credit that Democrats wanted.
It includes several billions of dollars more in Ukraine aid than requested by the Biden administration, clocking in at $45 billion, in addition to $40 billion in disaster relief for states to recover from natural weather events.
Other significant provisions include:
- $5.4 billion for 3,213 Democratic projects in their home districts through a process called earmarks.
- A GOP-pressed repeal of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate on the military.
- The bipartisan Electoral Count Act that seeks to prevent a repeat of last year’s Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol protest by reforming how presidential elections are certified by Congress.
- A ban on the popular social media app TikTok on government devices over its connections to China, a move spearheaded by GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri.
The bill doesn’t include a Democratic measure to let banks deal with marijuana companies or energy-permitting reform from Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia.
“It will advance cutting-edge research on cancer and other diseases, make our communities safer, deliver for our veterans, support the Ukrainian people, help communities recovering from devastating natural disasters, invest in child care and education and more,” said Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young. “As with any compromise, neither side got everything it wanted, but this legislation is good for our economy, our competitiveness and our country, and I urge Congress to send it to the president’s desk without delay.”
The legislation was delayed by several hours by a conflict between Democrats from Virginia and Maryland over how to choose the location of the new FBI headquarters.
The Maryland Democrats wanted to add language changing the criteria to favor their state when the General Services Administration makes the decision. Virginia Democrats wanted to keep the current criteria that tilt toward their state.
The final bill included compromise language requiring the GSA to meet with both states and consider their pitches to be the FBI’s new home.
• Ramsey Touchberry can be reached at rtouchberry@washingtontimes.com.
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