Congress Unveils $1.2 Trillion Plan to Fund Agencies to Sept. 30

Erik Wasson and Jack Fitzpatrick (BGOV)
·3 min read
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(Bloomberg) -- Congressional leaders released details of a $1.2 trillion deal to keep open most US government agencies through Sept. 30, acting just days before a Saturday deadline for a partial government shutdown.

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The House will vote on the package on Friday, according to a person familiar with the timing.

Defense spending would rise more than 3% to $886 billion under the agreement while domestic spending remains largely flat. Border and immigration agencies would see a funding boost.

The package, backed by President Joe Biden and leaders of both parties, imposes a 6% funding cut on the State Department and foreign operations and bans US embassies from flying LGBTQ Pride flags or other non-US official flags. Many US embassies have displayed the rainbow-themed flag during LGBTQ Pride month in June and on other occasions.

Republicans fell far short of the 22% domestic spending cut demanded by hardliners.

Congressional approval of the leaders’ deal is virtually assured, though opponents could use procedural maneuvers to delay passage, possibly forcing a brief US government shutdown beginning Saturday. A short weekend lapse wouldn’t likely have significant impact on the US economy or financial markets.

Read: How Looming US Government Shutdowns Became Routine: QuickTake

House Speaker Mike Johnson promoted what he portrayed as conservative victories in the agreement at a closed-door meeting with Republican lawmakers Wednesday morning, according to a person familiar with the presentation.

Johnson pointed to funding to expand migration detention beds from 34,000 to 42,000 and provide for 22,000 border patrol agents.

“While these changes are welcome, only a significant reversal in policy by the president to enforce the law can ultimately secure our border,” Johnson said in a statement.

Republican leaders also cited rejection of a Biden request to increase Pentagon climate funding. The defense increase allows for a 5.2% pay raise for US troops, the largest in decades.

Democrats said they fended off hundreds of policy demands from Republicans including new restrictions on abortion and migrants’ asylum rights. Democrats claimed as victories 12,000 new visas for Afghans who helped the US during the Afghanistan War and a $1 billion increase for child care and Head Start pre-school programs. Democrats also secured increases to funding for low-income schools, cancer research and Alzheimer’s research and a one-year extension of international HIV/AIDS prevention efforts.

Read: Pentagon’s $850 Billion Plan Would Tap Stockpiles for Taiwan

“These are not the bills Democrats would have written on our own — they are the result of very tough negotiations,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, told reporters.

The spending bill funds roughly three-quarters of US agency budgets, including the departments of Treasury, Defense and Homeland Security, as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission, for the remainder of the federal fiscal year. Congress approved funding for the other agencies earlier this month.

Among other key provisions, it doubles security funding for Taiwan, prohibits any effort to ban gas stoves in the US, claws back $20 billion in funding for tax collection from Biden’s signature inflation law and continues a longstanding freeze on lawmaker pay. The bill provides $200 million for a new FBI headquarters in suburban Maryland despite GOP attempts to kill the project.

The bill blocks all taxpayer funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in Gaza, as well as automatic pay raises for members of Congress.

Leaders of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus oppose the legislation and have been pressing to delay a vote on the measure past the shutdown deadline to give lawmakers time to read the giant bill.

(Adds details on timing in second paragraph)

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