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The House of Representatives has handed a $460 billion bill to fund a part of the federal government for the rest of fiscal yr 2024.
As anticipated, extra Democrats voted for the bill than Republicans – the difficulty of learn how to fund the government has splintered the House GOP’s razor-thin majority for a lot of this congressional time period, with Republican hardliners pressuring their convention to float towards vital spending cuts and conservative coverage riders that the Democrats who management the White House and Senate have referred to as nonstarters.
The 1,050-page bipartisan laws is a bundle of six payments coping with departments and businesses whose funding expires on Friday – Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); the Justice and Commerce Departments; Energy and Water Development; the Department of Interior; and Transportation and Housing.
Speaker Mike Johnson averted a possible government shutdown Friday by passing a $460 billion federal funding bill. (Getty Images)
Funding tied to Congress’ six remaining payments, which embody the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon, expires on March 22.
Fox News Digital first reported final month that House GOP leaders have been planning to jettison an earlier promise to move 12 particular person spending payments, one thing conservatives rallied round. Sources who spoke with Fox News Digital on the time blamed the Senate’s inaction on the seven particular person payments handed by the House, which included parts Democrats dismissed as “poison pills.”
Confronted with the damaged promise throughout his weekly press convention on Wednesday, Johnson countered that change was incremental in Washington and identified that splitting the 12 payments into no less than two packages ended the Democrat-backed custom of folding all of them into a large “omnibus” spending bill, which has been the case since 2018.
“We committed to do 12 separate appropriations bills…the reason that it’s been so difficult to do it is because Washington has no muscle memory on how to do that,” Johnson stated.
Johnson needed to negotiate a bipartisan spending settlement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“It takes a long time to turn an aircraft carrier, and we’re doing that gradually. We’re forcing reforms, trying to force Congress back into the mode, the statutory mode, the lawful mode, and the way in which it’s supposed to work with regard to government funding.”
But GOP hardliners are nonetheless sad with the bill, arguing Johnson didn’t struggle laborious sufficient for conservative coverage reforms and steeper spending cuts.
CONGRESSIONAL LEADERS STRIKE SHORT-TERM DEAL TO AVOID GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN
The House Freedom Caucus insisted, with out elaborating, that it was nonetheless an “omnibus” spending bill.
“Despite giving Democrats higher spending levels, the omnibus text released so far punts on nearly every single Republican policy priority. Worst of all, the omnibus surrenders Republicans’ leverage to force radical Democrats to the table to truly secure the southern border and end the purposeful, dangerous mass release of illegal aliens into the United States,” the group stated.
Democrats, in the meantime, have been jubilant that the bill didn’t embody right-wing measures on abortion entry, transgender care and demanding race principle, amongst others.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., touted the dearth of conservative coverage victories within the remaining deal. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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“I am very proud to say we successfully defeated the vast majority of the extreme cuts and hundreds of harmful policy riders proposed by House Republicans,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the highest Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, stated earlier than the ultimate vote.
The bill now heads to the Senate, the place it’s anticipated to move, earlier than hitting President Biden’s desk.
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