House passes bipartisan $460 billion bill to avoid partial shutdown

The House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a $460 billion spending bill to fund about half of the federal government through the fall. In doing so, the House is trying to avoid a partial shutdown at the end of the week and offers the first glimmer of a solution to the bitter spending battle that has consumed Congress for months. .

The 339-85 vote ended months of heated negotiations over federal funding that have repeatedly pushed the government to the brink of shutdown as Republicans pushed for cuts and conservative policies. It was yet another example of Speaker Mike Johnson being forced to sidestep opposition from the far right and turn to Democrats to provide the bulk of votes for critical legislation to keep the government running.

The Senate was expected to easily pass and pass the bill, sending it to President Biden in time for it to become law before the midnight deadline on Friday.

The measure would bring together six spending bills, extending funding through September 30 for dozens of federal programs in agriculture, energy and environment, transportation, housing, the Justice Department and veterans. Top lawmakers during the same period were still negotiating spending bills for the other half of the government, including that for the Pentagon, which Congress must approve by March 22 to avoid a lapse in funding.

On Wednesday, Mr. Johnson again relied on Democrats to get the spending legislation across the finish line after many Republicans in the House of Representatives refused to support it because it did not cut spending or meet the party’s most sweeping and divisive policy demands was met, including measures to restrict access. to abortion.

Republicans in the House of Representatives won some smaller victories, including cuts to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the FBI and environmental programs. Mr Johnson and his deputies framed the legislative package as a return to standard negotiations on individual spending bills – rather than lumping them all into one giant, ‘take it or leave it’ bill – and said it was time to move on to go. to the expenditure battle of the next budget year.

“Republicans in the House of Representatives have the majority, but it’s a narrow majority, and we control only half of a third of the federal government,” Mr. Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said at a news conference ahead of the vote at the Capitol. . “So we have to be realistic about what we can achieve.”

“But even so,” he added, the bill would modestly reduce domestic spending controlled by Congress.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and majority leader, said Wednesday that the Senate would pass the legislation “with time to spare” before Friday’s deadline.

In addition to funding for a range of government agencies, the legislation includes $12.6 billion in earmarks, allowing lawmakers to direct federal funds for specific projects to their states and districts.

The funding levels are consistent with the debt limit and spending deal negotiated last year by President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, which left spending on domestic programs essentially flat — even as funding for veterans programs continues to grow — while increasing military spending Allowed. to increase something.

While members of the ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus grumbled that the spending package did not deliver the big cuts they had wanted, there seemed little appetite to punish Mr. Johnson for trusting Democrats would pass it.

“Republicans will walk around and talk about how they won big victories, how they somehow delivered results for the American people,” said Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, an influential conservative. “The fact is that we have done nothing like that.”

With some right-wing members essentially refusing to vote for a spending bill that could pass the Democratic-controlled Senate and be signed into law, Mr. Johnson, like his predecessor, has been forced to turn to Democrats, a dynamics that he has in private. complained has weakened his hand at the negotiating table.

Knowing they would provide the most votes for the spending package in the House of Representatives, Democrats were able to take a tougher stance by rejecting a Republican Party effort to launch a pilot program in several states to limit what recipients receive with could buy from the government on a low income. assistance through the food nutrition program known as SNAP. They also oppose a Republican bid to repeal a new Food and Drug Administration rule allowing mifepristone — the first pill used in a two-drug abortion regimen — to be delivered through the mail and in stores Scattered.

“This legislation does not deliver everything either party might have wanted, but I am pleased that many of the extreme cuts and policies proposed by House Republicans were excluded,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat in the Appropriations Committee. “House Democrats roundly rejected their archaic restrictions on women’s reproductive health care.”

Republicans could use the spending legislation to curtail a policy instituted by the Veterans Affairs Department that aims to prevent suicides among veterans by switching to a federal background check for guns when veterans are found to lack the mental capacity have the ability to manage their own finances.

Under the language the GOP pushed for, the VA could not do this without a court order. Republicans argued that the current practice relies on an overly broad definition of incompetence and could infringe on veterans’ Second Amendment rights.