Congress unveils $1.2T spending bill with border security boost ahead of looming government shutdown
Congress unveiled a $1.2 trillion spending bill Thursday, ahead of a looming government shutdown on Saturday at midnight — with new funding to bolster security at the besieged US-Mexico border and cuts for controversial DEI programs and UNRWA.
The House and Senate Appropriations Committees released the 1,012-page bill less than 48 hours before several federal agencies’ lights will go dark, setting up a mad dash to pass the second part of a $1.66 trillion topline spending agreement reached in January.
Congress passed a six-bill $467.5 billion “minibus” on March 8 — despite Republican opposition — with funding for the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Transportation, Commerce, Justice and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Food and Drug Administration and military construction.
More than 100 Republicans — 83 in the House, and 21 in the Senate — still voted against it, which was not nearly enough to halt its passage.
The House approved an $886 billion budget for Pentagon operations in December, whereas non-defense discretionary spending in the topline deal worked out to $704 billion.
The White House called for the “swift passage” of the other six-bill package, which will fund the Departments of Defense, State, Labor, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security and the legislative branch until Sept. 30.
“This funding agreement between the White House and congressional leaders is good news that comes in the nick of time,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a Thursday speech on the floor of the chamber.
“When passed, it will extinguish any more shutdown threats for the rest of the fiscal year,” he added. “It’s now the job of the House Republican leadership to move this package ASAP.”
After winning the gavel in October, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) pledged to his conference he would allow at least 72 hours before putting any bill up for a vote — but Johnson told Fox News on Wednesday the rule was “not sacred.”
The conservative House Freedom Caucus called on their colleagues to vote down the “SwampOmnibus,” which like its predecessor contained many earmarks for pro-abortion and LGBTQ organizations, among others.
“A massive spending bill drafted in secrecy and dropped on us in the middle of the night is being rushed to the House floor for a vote with less than 36 hours to review,” the Freedom Caucus, led by Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.), posted on X.
But Republicans and Democrats trumpeted funding wins for the southern border, including $125 million in overtime pay for Border Patrol agents and increasing detention bed levels to 41,500, as well as funding for new border security technology to apprehend those who try to enter illegally and to detect fentanyl.
Salaries for at least 22,000 Border Patrol agents would also be supported by the funding.
Members from both parties also celebrated a $27 billion increase in defense spending from fiscal year 2023 — including a 5.2% increase in US military service members’ pay.
“House Republicans made a commitment to strategically increase defense spending, make targeted cuts to overfunded non-defense programs, and pull back wasteful spending from previous years,” House Appropriations Committee chairwoman Kay Granger (R-Texas) said in a statement.
GOP lawmakers pointed to funding for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at the Pentagon being rolled back to fiscal year 2021 levels, which was $50.5 million less than President Biden’s budget had requested.
Johnson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that the “$50 million haircut” freed up the government to focus on the 70% of the package focused on national defense.
“Democracy is messy. It’s particularly messy right now and in a moment like this, but we have to get the job done and there are some very substantial wins in here,” Johnson said. “We all know what a critical time it is. The world is on fire.”
The House speaker and others also drew attention to clawbacks of nearly $6.5 billion in unused COVID-19 “slush funds,” while cutting overall spending by more than $200 billion over the next 10 years
One significant cut would be to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, for which US taxpayers have provided at least $7 billion since 1950, with the exception of a two-year freeze during the Trump administration.
The Biden administration, which contributed $1 billion of that amount, paused funding for the Palestinian refugee aid organization, following reports that some of its employees participated in the Oct. 7 terror attack against Israel.
“UNRWA is finally facing the accountability it has long evaded and even longer deserved,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who asked appropriators to strip its funding, told The Post. “From its relentless antisemitism to its partnership with terrorists, UNRWA has made clear it can’t be fixed and must not be part of the region going forward.”
Meanwhile, Democrats touted $1 billion in funding for child care and the awarding of 12,000 special immigrant visas for Afghans who helped the US military during its 20-year war in the nation — a provision also supported by the White House.
Senate Appropriations chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) added in a statement that Democratic appropriators “defeated outlandish cuts” and “fought off scores of extreme policies that would have restricted Americans’ fundamental freedoms, hurt consumers while giving giant corporations an unfair advantage, and turned back the clock on historic climate action.”
If passed, the Office of Management and Budget also said that Congress should “quickly pivot to the bipartisan national security supplemental” passed by the Senate last month, which includes $95 billion in military aid for Ukraine’s war effort against Russia and Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists in Gaza.
Johnson told The Post in an interview last week that the funding bill took precedence, since it could affect the final “vote tally” for the foreign aid bill.
“I understand the timetable and understand the necessity of the urgency, the funding,” he said. “No one wants Vladimir Putin to prevail. I’m of the opinion that he wouldn’t stop in Ukraine. If he was allowed, he’d go through all the way through Europe.”
