>
In a vote Wednesday night, the House of Representatives approved a bill that delays government funding negotiations until the day before Christmas Eve.
Members of Congress voted 224 to 201 on a short-term spending deal that will keep federal dollars flowing through Dec. 23.
Nine Republicans crossed the aisle to join Democrats in passing the bill, including outgoing Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger.
“The legislation before us today is a simple date change that keeps government running as we negotiate the details of final spending bills and complete the job of funding government programs that meet the needs of hard-working Americans. “said House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa. DeLauro said before the vote.
The bipartisan bill now heads to the Senate, which must take action by Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
On Tuesday, lawmakers leading the spending talks finally announced a compromise that would cover a year’s worth of federal funds.
But negotiations on the so-called ‘omnibus’ bill have met with fierce opposition from Republicans in the House.
Earlier on Wednesday, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy called for a slightly longer resolution that would have funded the government until Jan. 3, when control of the House would pass to Republicans.
The House of Representatives reached an agreement to keep the government funded until December 23
Nearly all of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats voted in favor of the bill. Three did not vote and none voted against
“The legislation before us today is a simple date change that keeps the government running while we negotiate the details of the final spending bills,” House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Rosa DeLauro said Wednesday.
He also criticized his Republican colleagues in the Senate for helping Democrats ‘pass’ a year-long spending bill after leaders announced they ‘should’ be able to reach a deal to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. .
“The majority right now wants to put up a small continuing resolution that all members get up days before Christmas to try to vote on a package that can’t be written by two people, it won’t be here,” McCarthy said.
“The people who decide it are not going to be questioned by the voters,” McCarthy said, referring to retired Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.
Unlike McCarthy, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is prioritizing a full-year spending bill, arguing that a short-term deal would leave the military and other agencies in limbo.
The Democrats have been in power. They have had the House, the Senate and the presidency. They didn’t do their job. They shouldn’t bog us down now,’ the California Republican said, noting that funding for fiscal year 2023 was due to be approved at the beginning of the fiscal year, on October 1.
If Congress does not pass a omnibus bill this month, McCarthy said he would force Democrats to eliminate “waste and waking” from public spending in 2023.
“We are 20 days before the new members are sworn in,” McCarthy said, calling for a full-year spending bill to be submitted to the next Congress.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., reached an agreement with his Republican counterpart, Sen. Richard Shelby (Ala.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) to fund the government through the end of the current fiscal year. It still must pass both chambers, with a short-term funding bill set to expire on Friday.
The top House Republican signaled he did not want omnibus legislation and instead wanted 12 appropriations bills to be voted on and passed separately.
“We are 20 days away from the swearing in of the new members,” McCarthy continued.
The Republican leader refrained from criticizing McConnell over the deal, as he did last week on Fox News, and instead sought to recall Republican Sen. Richard Shelby.
“We have two members leading assignments that won’t be here,” he said, referring to Shelby and Leahy.
When asked about McCarthy’s opposition to the omnibus bill, Shelby, an Alabama Republican, told the Huffington Post: “He’s running for speakership, he’s supposed to say that.”
Last week, McCarthy said on Fox that Republicans are “wrong” to cut a year-end spending bill with Democrats.
‘Does that include McConnell?’ asked host Laura Ingram.
“Yes,” McCarthy said. ‘Why would you want to work on something if we have the gavel inside Congress?’
McCarthy charged Wednesday that House and Senate appropriators had announced they reached a deal without even disclosing a maximum number.
‘We don’t even know what the baseline is yet. And they want to vote for it next week! he said.
McCarthy spoke about the $31 trillion in national debt, noting that the nation has paid $100 billion in interest on its debt this year.
‘Why would you feel comfortable moving forward? I don’t think this is a partisan issue.
Meanwhile, a group of top House and Senate appropriators announced that the outlines of a deal had been reached that Congress ‘should’ be able to clear, averting a shutdown crisis by dispensing with the need for bills. short provisionals.
They did not say how much money they had agreed to and did not provide details in statements by three key appropriations negotiators, Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, Republican Sen. Richard Shelby and Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro.
It all comes as lawmakers scrambled to find a way to reach an agreement before government funds run out at midnight Friday, with lawmakers eager to get home and avoid another chapter of the holiday shutdown drama.
The White House has also been pushing for Congress to complete its spending work and pass the measure that will top $1.5 trillion, even as Biden hailed a drop in the annual deficit.
“If all goes well, we should be able to finish a master appropriations package by December 23,” said Shelby, the top retiring Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
House Appropriations Ranking Member Kay Granger, R-Texas, was not involved in the settlement announcement. She attended McCarthy’s press conference to voice her opposition to the deal.
The news came hours after the House of Representatives began introducing an interim spending bill to avoid a partial shutdown that would otherwise begin Friday, giving time to pass the year-long bill, which will it was expected to include more than $1.5 trillion in funding and will run through the end of the fiscal year on September 30, 2023.
DeLauro, who heads the House Appropriations panel, said lawmakers will “work day and night” to get the job done.
A first procedural vote on the interim legislation was set for Wednesday.
“The experiences of the last decade show that those who risk shutdowns to make political points always lose in the end,” Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer of New York said Wednesday. He called it “a road map to finance the government before the conclusion of the 117th Congress” and said that “there is still a long way to go.”
“Continuous long-term resolutions fool our military with resources and the certainty that our commanders and civilian leaders need to continue modernizing our forces, investing in crucial weapons and outmaneuvering adversaries like China,” the minority leader said. Senate, Mitch McConnell, of Kentucky.
The year-long ‘omnibus’ bill is also expected to contain new emergency funds to help Ukraine in its battle against Russian forces.
Ukraine could get billions more, after Biden asked Congress last month for $37 billion.
He is also expected to introduce an unrelated bill that reforms the way Congress certifies US presidential elections by reforming the Electoral Count Act.
Negotiators have mostly settled on Defense funding totaling $858 billion, an increase of 10% over funding the previous year. There was a $26 billion difference between the two parties haggling over non-defense funding, the hill informed.
Democrats wanted $813 billion and Republicans wanted $787 billion in non-defense spending.
The latter is aimed at preventing a repeat of the deadly upheaval of January 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Donald Trump tried to stop Biden’s certification as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Lawmakers, predominantly Democrats, have complained that Trump was able to exploit ambiguities in the law and wanted to underscore the largely ceremonial role played by the vice president. In 2020, Trump wanted then-Vice President Mike Pence to opt out of the electoral vote count.
McConnell said Republicans want to work on the omnibus bill by December 22. “We intend to be on our way home on the 23rd,” he told reporters before the deal.