- Hanging concerns the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) portion of a package that would fund six government agencies
- White House and Democrats say the Republican Party’s funding proposal is not enough and want more leeway to spend the money as they see fit
Five days into the government shutdown, Congress and the White House remain at an impasse over how to proceed with the second half of federal spending for the 2024 fiscal year.
The suspension concerns the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) portion of a package that would fund six government agencies.
Republicans had wanted to write a full-year continuing resolution, or CR, for DHS that would continue the agency’s funding at 2023 levels. But the White House and Democrats say the funding is not enough and want more leeway to spend the money as they see fit.
Negotiators for Speaker Mike Johnson and President Biden worked this weekend on a spending bill that would fund six government agencies
Funding negotiations for State-Foreign Operations, Defense, Labor-HHS, Legislature, and Financial Services-General Administration are essentially complete.
Negotiators had hoped to release the text of the so-called minibus, which wrapped six appropriations bills into one package, on Sunday. It is now unclear when they will release it.
They must give lawmakers 72 hours to read through the text, meaning that even if they release the text on Monday, a vote in the House of Representatives will take place on Thursday, one day before the deadline for a partial government shutdown . Lawmakers previously set deadlines of March 8 for four state agencies and March 22 to fund the other eight in their fourth CR to push the deadline forward.
Government financing for 2024 would be completed at the start of the budget year, on October 1.
Two men climb the cyclone fence installed by the Texas National Guard as hundreds of migrants line up along the border barrier, awaiting processing by the Border Patrol in hopes of receiving asylum on March 15, 2024 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
The number of southern border crossings reached a record 302,000 in December, but then fell to 124,000 in January and 140,000 in February
The White House made an eleventh-hour request for another $1.56 billion in funding, a source familiar with discussions confirmed to DailyMail.com, which would be an increase from the 2023 level of $61.8 billion amid a wave of migrant crossings.
Republicans shot down the question, arguing that it was not sufficiently dead-set on maintaining border security.
Meanwhile, Republicans are demanding more money for detention facilities and beds for migrants, and Democrats are demanding a pay increase for Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers.
The White House wants more leeway for “anomalies” to ensure that funding can shift if new problems arise. Derogations are ‘exceptions to the duration, amount or purposes.’
The number of southern border crossings reached a record 302,000 in December, but then dropped to 124,000 in January and 140,000 in February.
The bill is also expected to include restrictions on funding for the UN Palestinian refugee agency, commonly called UNRWA, after Israel alleged that 12 of the agency’s 30,000 employees colluded with Hamas in the October 7 attack.
Congress previously approved a $460 billion funding deal on March 8, just hours before the money allocated for the agencies ran out.
The deal “delivered significant Conservative policy victories” amounting to around $460 billion, despite a “divided government” and rejected “left-wing proposals”, Chairman Johnson said at the time.
That bill included funding for six federal agencies – including Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Domestic-Environment, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD.
It also imposed “deep cuts” to the EPA (10%), ATF (7%) and FBI (6%), which Johnson said “have threatened our freedoms and our economy.”
The next votes in the House of Representatives on legislative matters are expected Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.