$1.7 Trillion Deal Announced to Avoid Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders announced a $1.7 trillion spending package for the entire government early Tuesday. This includes another massive aid round to Ukraine, an almost 10% increase in defense spending, and about $40 billion to help communities across the country recover from droughts, hurricanes and more. Natural disasters.

The 4,155-page bill includes approximately $772.5 billion in nondefense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense spending, and runs through the end of the September fiscal year.

Lawmakers tried to cram as many priorities as possible into a sprawling package that is likely the last major bill in the current Congress. They are racing to complete the passage ahead. Friday midnight deadline Or you might face the possibility of some government offices shutting down for the Christmas holidays.

Lawmakers leading the negotiations unveiled details of the bill just before 2 a.m. on Tuesday.

The spending package includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to war-torn Ukraine. Russian invasion, according to Senator Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This would be the largest US aid to Ukraine to date, surpassing that of President Joe Biden. $37 billion Make an emergency request so funds can flow to the war effort in the coming months.

The United States has provided approximately $68 billion to Ukraine in military, economic and humanitarian assistance to date.

“Completing the omnibus is important and absolutely vital to help our Ukrainian friends.

The law also includes historic amendments to federal election law aimed at preventing future presidents or presidential candidates from trying to overturn elections. The bipartisan review of the Electoral College Act follows former President Donald Trump’s efforts to persuade Republican lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to oppose the recognition of President Joe Biden’s victory on January 6, 2021. It corresponds directly.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned that if fiscal 2023 appropriations bills don’t win bipartisan support this week, he will seek another short-term patch for next year, prompting a new majority in the House. Guaranteed Republican occupying shape the package. .

Leahy opposed that approach when making the bill public, stating: We either do our job and fund the government, or we abdicate responsibility without real progress. ”

Despite the warnings, McConnell framed the long-term appropriations bill as a Republican victory. He said that while Republicans managed to increase defense spending well beyond Biden’s demands, they scaled back some of the increases Biden wanted for domestic spending.

“Congress has rejected the vision of the Biden administration and is doing the exact opposite,” McConnell said.

The bill’s release was delayed due to squabbles over language related to the location of the FBI’s future headquarters. Maryland legislators argue that ensuring that the predominantly black community gets its fair share of federal investments should be considered more thoroughly as part of the selection process. They are proposing to build their headquarters at one of two sites in Prince George County, Maryland.

In September, the General Services Administration announced a site selection plan based on five criteria. The most important 35% was proximity to the FBI Training Academy in Quantico, Virginia. Advancing equity was weighted at 15%.

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said at a recent forum that executive orders early in the Biden administration made it clear that the issue of racial equality should be the job of each department, not just a departmental issue. He said he was emphasizing that he had to whole government.

“I’d like to say that the GSA and FBI clearly didn’t get the message given their lack of focus on this factor,” Van Hollen said.

A Senate Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said Schumer included language in the appropriations bill and GSA administrators held “individual and detailed consultations” with lawmakers representing sites in Maryland and Virginia to express their views. He said he made it possible.

Lawmakers are almost three months behind on completing the 2023 spending package. It was due to be completed by October 1 last year, when the government’s fiscal year began.

The last time Congress enacted any appropriations bill ever was in 1996, when the Senate finished its work on September 30, the very last day of the budget year. Then-President Bill Clinton signed it on the same day.

The Senate is expected to vote on the appropriations bill first, requiring the support of at least 10 Republican senators before the bill is considered in the House. As was the case with the recent comprehensive appropriations bill, lawmakers expressed concern about passing a law containing thousands of pages in a short period of time.

“We haven’t seen a single page of the Pelosi-Schumer appropriations bill yet. They expect us to pass it by the end of this week,” tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla “That’s insane.