By KEVIN FREKING (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House approved a $1.2 trillion package of spending bills on Friday just a few hours before funding for some key federal agencies is set to expire, a long overdue action nearly six months into the budget year that will push any threats of a government shutdown to the fall.
The bill passed by a vote of 286-134 and now moves to the Senate, where leadership hopes for a final vote later Friday. More than 70% of the money would go to defense.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., brought the bill up under a streamlined process that required two-thirds support for approval.
Lawmakers could still miss the midnight deadline for funding the government as action in the Senate could take time. But the practical impact in the near term would be minimal. With most federal workers off duty over the weekend and many government services funded through earlier legislation, a shutdown would mostly pass without incident unless matters dragged into Monday.
Johnson broke up this fiscal year’s spending bills into two parts as House Republicans revolted against what has become an annual practice of asking them to vote for one massive, complex bill with little time to review it or face a shutdown. Johnson viewed that as a breakthrough. Still, most of the opposition Friday came from Republicans, who viewed the bill as containing too few of their policy priorities and as spending too much.
“The bottom line is that this is a complete and utter surrender,” said Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., who called himself “a hell no on this bill.”
The opponents particularly took issue with fellow Republicans voting for the bill and the actions of House GOP leadership. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., went so far as to say “it’s clear that the Democrats own the speaker’s gavel.”
“We told the people we were going to have a smaller government, and we told the people we were going to secure the border,” said Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio. “It’s a sad day.”
It’s taken lawmakers six months into the current fiscal year to get near the finish line, the process slowed by conservatives who pushed for more policy mandates and steeper spending cuts than a Democratic-led Senate or White House would consider. The impasse required several short-term, stopgap spending bills to keep agencies funded as negotiations continued.
“It is ironic that the group that has made compromise the most difficult over the last year continues to oppose compromise,” said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., during floor debate on the bill. “Legislative action is about compromise.”
The first package of full-year spending bills, which funded the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and the Interior, among others, cleared Congress two weeks ago with just hours to spare before funding expired for those agencies. Now, lawmakers are considering the second package under a similar scenario.
The 1,012-page bill also funds the departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor and others.
Spending on things other than defense will stay about the same as last year, but some, like the Environmental Protection Agency, will get less money, and many agencies won't get enough money to keep up with inflation.
When you add up both packages, the government plans to spend about $1.66 trillion. This doesn't include programs like Social Security and Medicare, or paying off the country's growing debt.
House Republicans made a rule that stops providing money to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency until March 2025. This agency provides food, water, and shelter for people in Gaza.
Republicans want to stop giving money to the agency after Israel said that twelve agency workers were part of the attack Hamas did in Israel on Oct. 7.
But some lawmakers are worried about the rule because many relief agencies say there's no other way to give the aid that the United States and other countries are trying to send to Gaza, where one-fourth of the 2.3 million people are starving.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, a leading Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said the rule has caused some problems with Democratic members. But she also said that Democrats were able to get more humanitarian help overall. It will increase by about $336 million from last year.
To get support from Republicans, Johnson has also highlighted some of the spending increases obtained for about 8,000 more beds for detaining migrants waiting for their immigration hearings or to be sent out of the country. That's about a 24% increase from current levels. Also, GOP leaders talked about more money to hire about 2,000 Border Patrol agents.
Meanwhile, Democrats are proud of a $1 billion increase for Head Start programs and new child care centers for military families. They also talked about a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research and a $100 million increase for Alzheimer's research.
"We stopped crazy cuts that would have hurt American families and our economy," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.
The spending in the bill mostly matches an agreement by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and the White House in May 2023. This agreement limited spending for two years and put off the debt ceiling until January 2025 so the government could keep paying its bills.
Shalanda Young, head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told lawmakers Thursday that last year's agreement, known as the Fiscal Responsibility Act, will save the government about $1 trillion over the next ten years.
Members of both parties are frustrated with how long the process took and that the result was what many had predicted. They had warned all along that Republicans wouldn't get most of the policy changes they wanted or cut spending more than what McCarthy and the White House had agreed to last year.
"People were living in a dream world thinking, 'Well, we're going to do something different than what McCarthy had agreed with the president on,'" said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb.
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