Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.U., left, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., participate in a menorah lighting to celebrate the eight-day festival of Hanukkah, Tuesday, Dec. 12, at the U.S. Capitol. 2023.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Congressional lawmakers on Sunday released details of the first six budget bills that require government agencies to continue funding before they run out of money and a partial government shutdown takes effect this weekend.
The 1,050-page appropriations package contains funding for six major areas of government including the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Water, Transportation, Housing and more.
Funding for those departments was set to expire last Friday, March 1, but congressional leaders reached a deal Wednesday to extend those deadlines by a week and avert a partial government shutdown. It was the fourth such funding increase this fiscal year, as Congress has struggled to settle on a long-term budget plan.
This partial budget deal is a step toward securing a permanent budget plan for the remainder of the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1.
But these six funding bills are only half the battle.
Six other appropriations bills that preserve the rest of the government’s money are set to expire on March 22, giving Capitol Hill just over two weeks to negotiate the second half of the government’s spending plan.
Still, leaders on both sides of the aisle are hailing the first half of the funding package as a victory, though for different reasons.
Democrats are rejecting continued full funding of the Special Food Assistance Program for Women, Infants and Children. They also received subsidies to rent and pay for infrastructure employees such as air traffic controllers and railway inspectors.
“Throughout the negotiations, Democrats fought hard to prevent cuts to housing and nutrition programs, and to stop harmful provisions that would further limit women’s access to health care, or the progress we’ve made to fight climate change. Bring it back,” the Senate Majority Leader. Chuck SchumerDN.Y., said in a statement Sunday.
Meanwhile, Republicans are winning battles over gun ownership and cutting funding to government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“House Republicans scored key conservative policy victories, rejected proposals from the left, and implemented sharp cuts to agencies and programs critical to President Biden’s agenda,” House Speaker Mike JohnsonR-La., said in a statement on Sunday.
The funding package now heads to the House for a vote where it will likely face opposition from the House Freedom Caucus, a coalition of Republican hardliners that has fiercely opposed budget compromises over the past fiscal year.
“The clock is now ticking until government funding ends this Friday. Between now and the end of the week, the House must quickly pass and send this bipartisan package to the Senate,” Schumer said Sunday. “Once again, it will only be bipartisanship that gets us across the finish line.”