The six bills that Congress needs to pass by Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown have some Republican wins, including cutting FBI and EPA spending.
President Johnson said Republicans “achieved key conservative policy victories” despite a “divided government” and rejected “left-wing proposals” in the deal announced Sunday.
In addition, the text will impose ‘strong cuts to agencies and programs critical to President Biden’s agenda,’ he added.
The speaker’s key victories are prohibiting the Justice Department from “targeting parents” while preventing the Biden administration from respecting veterans’ Second Amendment rights while funding their health care. .
He will also impose “deep cuts” to the EPA (10%), ATF (7%) and FBI (6%), which Johnson said have “threatened our freedoms and our economy.”
The measure is more than 1,000 pages long and includes funding for several federal agencies such as the Departments of Justice and Energy.
House Speaker Mike Johnson planned the tiered government funding approach, which set two separate deadlines, one on March 8 and another on March 22.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned Republicans that they would add “poison pill” policies to government funding measures.
Other policy provisions in the bill would provide additional funding to the FAA to oversee production of Boeing 737 Max aircraft, while another could ban sales of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China.
Amtrak, the long-beleaguered U.S. rail operator, would also get billions in financing.
The new funding details come after Congress passed a fourth short-term funding bill late last week, just a day before the government’s funding deadline.
The vote gives lawmakers additional time to approve the 12 largest appropriations measures they must approve each year for different departments of the federal government.
This week, six appropriations bills will be bundled into a package known as a “minibus,” where they will all be put to a single up-or-down vote, congressional leaders announced Sunday.
Another deadline for funding the remaining government agencies looms on March 22, but Congress is expected to group those bills into one or two minibus votes.
The six appropriations bills lawmakers must pass before this week’s March 8 deadline include those that fund the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Interior-Environment, Military Construction -VA and Transportation-HUD.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced after the bill’s release on Sunday: “We are proud to keep the government open without cuts or poisonous provisions.”
Still, the Democratic-led Senate is likely to seek to amend the measures to remove GOP policies before proceeding with a vote.
Congress passed four short-term funding bills and has not yet approved appropriations measures covering fiscal year 2024.
Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the House White last week to address government funding.
Leaders ultimately decided to press ahead with Johnson’s short-term spending plan that included delaying the government’s funding deadlines.
“Democrats fought to protect the investments that are important to workers and help keep our economy strong, rejecting devastating cuts to housing, nutrition assistance and more, while blocking extreme Republican policies, such as efforts to restrict abortion rights,” wrote Senator Patty Murray in X.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who strategized the staggered funding deadline approach, manipulated GOP members’ expectations in a phone call Thursday.
‘If you expect a lot of home runs and grand slams here, I admit you will be disappointed. But we will be able to achieve a series of political victories,” he said.
“These bills will be riddled with singles and doubles that we should be proud of, especially in our small majority.”
Johnson also expressed pride in breaking up major appropriations bills into separate votes, which have often been passed by grouping the 12 measures into what is called an “omnibus.”
‘We are trying to get the aircraft carrier back to true budget and spending reform. It was important to break it down into smaller pieces,” Johnson said.
Releasing the text of the spending bills gives lawmakers 72 hours to review them before a vote is likely scheduled this week.
The remaining six bills that must be passed by March 22 are for the Departments of Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor-HHS-Education, State-Foreign Operations and the Legislative Branch.