Details of the $1.2 trillion spending bill emerge as a partial shutdown looms

Congressional aides rushed Tuesday to draft the text of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan spending deal to fund the government through September.

While President Biden, Republicans and Democrats have all endorsed the deal, they had yet to release its details and it was not clear whether Congress would be able to act in time to prevent a brief partial government shutdown during the to avoid weekends.

Still, lawmakers in both parties were already touting what they would get from the legislation, which wraps six spending measures into one massive package.

“The end product is something that allowed us to achieve many important provisions and victories and take a step in the direction we want, even with our small, historically small majority,” Chairman Mike Johnson said Wednesday.

At a closed-door meeting with Republicans on Tuesday morning, Mr. Johnson mentioned the inclusion of provisions his party wanted, including funding for additional detention beds managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and cutting aid to the United Nations’ main agency that provides assistance to Palestinians.

Democrats struck a long-sought deal to create 12,000 new special visas for Afghans who had worked for the United States in Afghanistan; a one-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, the U.S. government’s effort to address HIV worldwide; and funding increases for federal child care and education programs.

Here’s a look at what we know so far about the legislation, which would fund the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security, State Department and health agencies.

It increases funding for immigration detention beds.

The legislation funds roughly 8,000 more beds than last year’s law, a victory Republicans in the House of Representatives have touted. Congress funded 34,000 beds through the fall of 2023, but the emergency measure currently funding the department increased the number of beds to about 42,000. Negotiators agreed to keep funding flowing to support that higher number.

The bill would ban funding for the main aid agency for Palestinians.

The legislation would prevent funding from going to UNRWA, the main U.N. agency providing aid to Palestinians in Gaza, through March 2025, leaving a shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars for the agency.

It extends a funding pause that the White House and lawmakers from both major U.S. parties supported after Israel in January accused at least 12 UNRWA employees of taking part in the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel led by Hamas.

It would boost funding for child care and health care research.

At a closed-door meeting, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, told lawmakers that Democrats had won spending increases for federal child care and education programs, including Head Start. She also touted increases in funding for cancer and Alzheimer’s research, and for the federal suicide hotline, according to a person familiar with her presentation.

It includes a one-year reauthorization of PEPFAR, which will help fund global efforts to combat the spread of AIDS. Congress stalled on reauthorizing the program, parts of which expired in the fall, amid concerns among Republicans that some of the health organizations that fight AIDS also offer abortion services.

Democrats also blocked the inclusion of Republican efforts to cut funding for Title I, a Department of Education program to support low-income students and schools.

It includes a range of GOP conservative policy mandates.

House Republicans also won the inclusion of several provisions aimed at addressing conservative cultural grievances. For example, the bill would ban U.S. diplomatic facilities from flying any flag other than the U.S. above their heads — an effort to prevent embassies and other official buildings from flying gay or transgender pride flags. It also includes a federal ban on gas stoves, an idea the Biden administration says it is not pursuing but which sparked outrage among Republicans when a Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner suggested it could be ripe for future regulatory actions.

The Hyde Amendment, a measure banning federal funding for abortion that was first included in the spending legislation in 1976 and has been renewed virtually every year since, is also in the bill. But Democrats blocked Republicans from imposing other anti-abortion measures.

The legislation cuts foreign aid.

The funding levels meet 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 and military spending increases slightly . .

This translated into cuts in other areas, including foreign aid.

During the closed-door meeting, Mr. Johnson said Republicans had secured a 6 percent cut in foreign aid programs. It was not immediately clear which programs would be affected.