Congressional leaders announce an agreement on spending levels, a key step to avoid a shutdown
WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders have reached an agreement on overall spending levels for the current fiscal year, which could help avoid a partial government shutdown later this month.
The agreement largely provides spending limits for defense and domestic programs that Congress established as part of a bill to suspend the debt limit until 2025. But it does offer some concessions to Republicans in the House of Representatives who view the spending limits in that agreement as insufficient.
In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the deal would provide $16 billion in additional cuts over the previous agreement, brokered by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden, and about $30 billion less is then what the Senate was considering.
“This represents the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have reached in more than a decade,” Johnson wrote.
Biden said the agreement “brings us one step closer to preventing an unnecessary government shutdown and protecting important national priorities.”
“It reflects the funding levels I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring,” Biden said in a statement. “It rejects deep cuts to programs that hardworking families rely on, and provides a path to pass full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free from any extreme policies.”
The deal accelerates the roughly $20 billion in cuts already agreed to for the Internal Revenue Service and revokes about $6 billion in COVID relief money that had been approved but not yet spent, Johnson's letter said.
“It's a good deal for Democrats and the country,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said during a briefing to colleagues.
Essentially, Democrats view the compromises they have made as mild. In a description to reporters, they said the COVID savings would have “no significant impact on ongoing projects or ongoing activities.” And they said moving all $20.2 billion in IRS cuts to this year instead of two years still leaves the agency able to maintain the “critical investments” Congress made in 2022. At the time, Congress provided the IRS with an additional $80 billion to be spent over ten years.
In total, the agreement calls for $886 billion in defense financing. It would generate $772 billion in domestic, non-defense spending if $69 billion were included in a side deal beyond the debt ceiling McCarthy reached with the White House, Democrats said.
The most conservative Republicans in the House of Representatives opposed the previous debt ceiling agreement and even halted proceedings in the House of Representatives for a few days to show their displeasure. Many undoubtedly wanted additional concessions, but Democrats have insisted on adhering to debt ceiling spending limits, putting Johnson in a difficult situation.
“It's even worse than we thought,” the House Freedom Caucus said of the deal in a tweet on X. “This is a total failure.”
Legislators needed agreement on overall spending levels so that appropriators could craft the bills that set line-by-line funding for the agencies. The money expires on January 19 for some agencies and on February 2 for others.
The agreement is separate from negotiations taking place to secure additional funding for Israel and Ukraine while curbing restrictions on asylum applications at the U.S. border.
In a joint statement, Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries expressed support for the agreement.
“It will also allow us to secure investments for hardworking American families through the legislative achievements of President Biden and Democrats in Congress,” Schumer and Jeffries said.
But they also warned House Republicans against efforts to add conservative policymakers to the bills in coming days, saying Democrats “would not support poison pill policy changes in any of the 12 appropriations bills coming up.” have been submitted to Congress.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, who helped lead debt ceiling negotiations when McCarthy was chairman, noted that two-thirds of both parties in the House of Representatives supported the deal.
“This deal, which adheres to that framework, deserves equally strong support,” McHenry said.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., tweeted that he was encouraged that leaders had identified a “path to completion” of the spending bills. It was a tentative acknowledgment that there were some obstacles ahead.
“America faces serious national security challenges, and Congress must act quickly to provide the full year of resources this moment requires,” McConnell said.