By KEVIN FREKING (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and congressional leaders have said they reached a deal on the final spending bills for this fiscal year. The big question now is how quickly lawmakers can pass the bills to prevent a partial government shutdown.
Biden mentioned that he will sign the bill package as soon as he gets it, but time is running out. The legislative staff needs time to complete the bill text, which is a tough job. The House has a rule that gives lawmakers 72 hours to review a bill before voting, and the Senate is not known for moving quickly. Meanwhile, funding for several important agencies will expire at midnight on Friday.
“We have come to an agreement with Congressional leaders on a path forward for the remaining full-year funding bills,” Biden, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday morning. “The House and Senate are now working to finalize a package that can quickly be brought to the floor, and I will sign it immediately.”
Work on the final spending bills faced a delay related to funding for the Department of Homeland Security, but the details of that bill were resolved late Monday. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the relevant committees are now drafting bill text to be considered by the full House and Senate “as soon as possible.” Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, issued a similar statement, saying “in the next few days, upon completion of the drafting process,” Congress would consider the package.
The developments come almost six months into the fiscal year, with Congress only halfway through passing spending measures totaling about $1.65 trillion. Lawmakers passed the first part of spending bills in early March, representing about 30% of discretionary spending for the year. Now lawmakers are focusing on the larger package and, as has become routine, are approaching a shutdown deadline.
The package is expected to allocate about $886 billion for the Pentagon. It will also fund the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor and others.
In general, the two spending packages offer about a 3% increase for defense, while keeping nondefense spending roughly the same as the previous year. This is in line with an agreement that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked out with the White House, which limited spending for two years and suspended the debt ceiling until January 2025 so the federal government could continue paying its bills.
House Republicans have been keen to end the practice of combining all 12 annual spending bills into one large bill known as an omnibus. This time, they succeeded in splitting the spending bills into two parts.
With the potential release of legislative text late on Tuesday, the House’s 72-hour rule means that the chamber would not take it up until late Friday, just hours before funding runs out. Johnson would then likely have to bring the bill up through an expedited process requiring two-thirds support to pass.
Most of the “no” votes are expected to come from Republicans, who have been critical of the overall spending levels as well as the lack of policy mandates sought by some conservatives, such as restricting abortion access, eliminating diversity and inclusion programs within federal agencies, and banning gender-affirming care.
Next, the Senate would need to take action on the bill, but all senators would have to agree to speed up the process to reach a final vote before the midnight Friday deadline. Typically, these agreements need Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to allow votes on different amendments to the bill in exchange for a quicker final vote. Schumer expressed hope on Tuesday that there would be no government services interruption.
“We haven’t experienced a government shutdown since 2019. There's no valid reason for one now that we’re very close to completing the job,” Schumer stated.
One part of the bill would allocate 12,000 special immigrant visas for eligible Afghans who assisted Americans despite significant personal risk during about two decades of war in Afghanistan. Without congressional action, the State Department could exhaust these visas by the end of summer, putting thousands of Afghans seeking safety in the U.S. at risk.
Advocacy groups welcomed the news. Shawn VanDiver, a Navy veteran and leader of the #AfghanEvac coalition supporting Afghan resettlement efforts, called it an “undeniable win” if the legislation ultimately passes.
“Although this won’t be sufficient visas to assist all our Afghan allies, it does provide some relief and demonstrates to our partners in America’s longest war that we won’t abandon them,” VanDiver commented.
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