A big $1. 2 trillion spending plan passed by Congress for a shutdown

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress released the government’s last six investment expenditures Thursday, starting a race toward Friday’s deadline to finish paintings that were supposed to be finished just six months ago.

The bipartisan agreement on the $1. 2 trillion spending package, which came shortly before 3 a. m. m. , came less than two weeks after the U. S. House and Senate passed the other six annual appropriations bills.

This package includes spending measures for some of the federal government’s ultimate purposes: the departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Labor, State, and Treasury.

The bill would also fund Congress, the president’s office, the judiciary and the Social Security administration.

The 1,012-page spending package provides investment for a slew of programs, adding several that lawmakers will promote as a campaign trail before the November election.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday morning that the package is “another impediment toward our ultimate goal of investing in the federal government. “

“This investment agreement between the White House and congressional leaders is smart and timely news: Once passed, it will eliminate any additional risk of shutdowns for the remainder of the fiscal year, avoid the scythe of budget sequestration, and keep the government open. “No clippings or poison pills,” he said. It is now incumbent upon House Republican leaders to move this package forward as quickly as possible. “

After the House votes to pass the package, most likely on Friday, Schumer said “the Senate will want bipartisan cooperation to pass it before the Friday deadline and the shutdown. “

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said at a press convention Wednesday that he expects senators to hold consultations this weekend to make final votes on the package.

“My assumptions and what I’ve told our members is that we’ll probably be here this weekend. However, it will depend on how long he stays in the House,” McConnell said.

“And when we get to that point, what we’ve done recently — and this will continue — is that, in exchange for a series of amendments, we can do it more quickly, rather than putting ourselves in the position of shutting down to bring down the government,” McConnell added.

Chairman Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said in a brief that the plan would bring back $20. 2 billion of Internal Revenue Service investments that Democrats have included in their tax and climate replacement package, as well as $6 billion in unused COVID-19 funds.

On immigration, the investment program “reduces investment in NGOs that inspire illegal immigration and detention capacity and the number of Border Patrol agents to bring them into line with the levels of the appropriations bill passed by the House and the Secure Borders Act (H. R. 2),” he said, referring to non-governmental organizations.

The package also includes investments for national defense. “This FY24 appropriations bill is a serious commitment to bolstering our national defense by getting the Pentagon focused on its core project while also expanding for our brave men and women who serve in uniform,” Johnson said. “What is vital is an end to investment in the U. N. company that hired the terrorists who participated in the October 7 attacks on Israel. “

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash. , said in a written statement that she was “proud to have secured an additional $1 billion to lower families’ child care costs and help them access preschool, a critical investment to help combat child care. “”Health care crisis that is holding families and our economy back.

“From day one of this process, I’ve said there won’t be a far right limiting women’s reproductive freedoms, and there isn’t,” Murray said. “Democrats have championed women’s right to choose in those negotiations, and we’ve focused on making meaningful investments for brokers. “

Democratic lawmakers, Murray said, “beat extravagant budget cuts that would have been a blow to American families and our economy, and fought dozens of excessive policies that would have curtailed Americans’ fundamental freedoms, harmed consumers, and at the same time given unfair credit to giant corporations. “. , and push back the clock for historic climate action.

The House and Senate will have to debate and approve the measure in less than two days under the interim investment agreement, or else an investment hole would begin over the weekend. If this were to continue beyond the brief weekend, a partial government shutdown would begin.

The House can hold a vote without problems within that time, but the Senate will have to reach an agreement among its 100 members in order to vote beyond that time.

Here’s a look at where Congress has the most investment and where it has cut spending on those six government investment expenditures for fiscal year 2024, which began Oct. 1.

Congress plans to spend $824. 5 billion on the Defense Spending Bill, which budgets the Pentagon, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Central Intelligence Agency and Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

This bill includes an investment for a 5. 2% pay raise for military and civil defense employees, which will be retroactive to January 1, 2024. The basic housing allowance will accrue up to 5. 4% and the basic living allowance will accrue up to 1. 7% consistent with one cent.

This overall spending point would be divided among several core programs, totaling $176. 2 billion for military personnel, an increase of $3. 5 billion; $287. 2 billion for operations and maintenance, $9. 1 billion above existing points; $172 billion for the purchase of military equipment, $9. 8 billion more than the next point; and $148. 3 billion for studies and development, a backlog of $8. 6 billion, according to a GOP summary and a summary by House Democrats.

Israel’s cooperative missile defense systems would get $300 million for studies and testing, as well as $200 million for the purchase, in addition to the Iron Dome and David’s Sling. An additional $300 million would be pledged to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative.

Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Jon Tester, a Montana Democrat, said in a statement that the bill “will invest in our ability to stay ahead of the Chinese threat, protect our country from foreign adversaries, and maintain the status of America’s allies. and take care of ourselves. ” our military members and their families.

The joint explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft law urges the Ministry of Defence to inform itself about the reasons why the army has difficulties in recruiting.

“Army facilities are in the midst of one of the biggest recruitment crises since the creation of the all-volunteer force,” he said. “As retention of the corps of enlisted workers in the military remains high, those who continue to serve will be promoted to the higher ranks, leaving an alarming deficit in terms of junior armies, which account for 40% of the total active military force of the United States. The Nation wants young Americans to perform serious service in uniform.

The package calls on the Department of Defense to “conduct an independent investigation to compound the failure of the services’ recruitment efforts,” according to the House Republicans’ summary of the bill.

The Secretary of Defense will also brief the Defense Appropriations Subcommittees on a proposal to increase the pay of young enlisted troops.

The Financial Services and General Government Bill (which budgets the U. S. Treasury Department, the office of the president, the judiciary and more than two dozen smaller systems) would garner $26. 1 billion in investments. This is about $1. 1 billion less than existing investment levels for those systems.

FSGG Senate Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said in a written statement that “the bipartisan law invests in those critical priorities for our country and more, adding that it provides key resources to combat the opioid epidemic and the investment needed to build the FBI’s new headquarters in Greenbelt, Maryland.

“Building an economy that works for Americans requires supporting our small businesses and network lenders, protecting consumers, expanding our broadband infrastructure, and keeping our monetary formula secure,” Van Hollen said.

The Treasury Department would get $14. 2 billion, a relief of $22. 9 billion from its existing investment levels. Of that level of overall investment, $12. 3 billion would go to the Internal Revenue Service, to its existing investment, and $158 million would go to the Bureau of Alcohol. and Tobacco Tax and Trade, according to a summary of the House Democrats’ bill.

The judiciary would receive more than $8. 6 billion to operate U. S. courts, adding district courts, appellate courts and other judicial services. This investment point represents an increase of approximately $170 million.

According to the joint explanatory memorandum, it provides $129 million for the salaries and expenses of the U. S. Supreme Court and $20 million for construction and its grounds.

The bill includes $791 million in investments for the District of Columbia, a minimum of $1 million. This includes $40 million for tuition assistance, $30 million for emergency and security expenses, $8 million for water treatment and sewer improvements, and $4 million for the fight against HIV. AIDS testing and treatment, according to a summary of the bill by House Democrats.

The president’s executive would get about $872. 5 million, a minimum of $6 million from the 2023 budget level, according to a summary of the bill by Democrats.

This $114 million for the Office of Administration, $19 million for the National Security Council, $22 million for the Office of the National Director of Cybersecurity, and $457 million for the National Drug Control Policy.

The bill would provide the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission with the power to protect the safety of the product. An investment of approximately $151 million, a minimum of $1. 5 million. The bill prohibits the CPSC from banning gas stoves, “which would be consumer choice,” according to a GOP summary of the bill.

This policy provision would prevent CPSC from “promulgating, implementing, administering, or enforcing any regulations relating to fuel stoves as a product type,” according to the explanatory memorandum.

CPSC has taken regulatory action to ban fuel stoves. Agency officials have raised concerns about indoor air quality coming from fuel stoves, and the company is lately studying the effects of those fuel emissions on human health.

The Electoral Assistance Commission would receive relief of $280,000 in funding, for a total of $27. 7 million.

A total of $55 million of that allocation would go toward election security grants “to submit bills to states for election management activities for federal functions, improve election generation, and make improvements to election security,” according to the explanatory memorandum.

Congress plans to spend $62 billion on the Department of Homeland Security, adding up the possibility of finding narcotics like fentanyl at U. S. ports of entry and investing another $495 million to hire 22,000 Border Patrol agents.

The bill provides $19 to U. S. Customs and Border Protection, a $3 increase from existing levels, and more than $9. 6 to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an increase of $1. 1.

It sets in motion policy needs for detention centers, such as prohibiting contracts with private corporations that meet inspection standards and offering an additional $3 million to expand the use of ICE’s frame cameras, according to the explanatory memo.

The law would require the Department of Homeland Security to release information about overall holding capacity and the number of other people who “fled” and “returned” at the southern border on the 15th of the month, according to the joint explanatory memorandum.

DHS labels other individuals as “fugitives” when a user is observed entering the U. S. He is not a U. S. citizen without authorization and is not turned away or detained. This knowledge is not publicly available.

The Clerk’s Office and Branch would get $404 million, a backlog of about $20 million. About $30 million of that investment would go to “support the reunification of families who were unjustly separated at the U. S. -Mexico border during the Trump administration. “” according to the House Democrats’ summary of the bill.

The bill provides $5. 1 million for law enforcement and deportation operations, an increase of $900 million over existing funding. Of this amount, $355 million would be spent on the creation of 41,500 detention beds.

The bill would spend $11. 8 million on the U. S. Coast Guard, an increase of $122. 7 million; $10. 6 in billing for the Transportation Security Administration, an increase of $1. 2 in billing; and $25. 3 million for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, a $72. 9 million investment relief.

FEMA’s investment would go to several projects, $20 billion to alleviate the crisis.

The bill would allocate $13. 7 million to the Department of Labor, $145 million less than existing investment levels, and $79 million to the Department of Education, a $500 million relief, for the House GOP’s summary.

The Department of Health and Human Services would get a bill of $116. 8, about $3. 9 less than the bill of $120. 7 provided in the last fiscal year. However, the House Democrats’ summary of the bill states that when appropriations are factored into the overall spending level, HHS will get a backlog of $955 million.

Senate Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee Chair Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis. , said in a written statement that the bill “helps address the fentanyl and opioid crisis, expand access to affordable child care, invest in must-have intellectual fitness programs and affordable physical care programs,” and connect Americans to the education and job schooling they want to get jobs done well Paid.

The HHS investment would be shifted to many fitness programs, adding up to a backlog of $300 million for the National Institutes of Health, for a total spend of $48. 6 billion.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would get $9. 2 billion, more than $4. 5 million more than its current funding.

The Title X family circle that plans grants would receive $286 million in funding, the same amount they currently receive, despite House Republicans’ proposal to the program as a whole.

The Strategic Preparedness and Response Administration, a central component of the nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the mpox outbreak, would get $3. 6 billion, a total of $5 million.

Of this total expenditure, $1 billion would go to the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority and $980 million would go to the Strategic National Reserve. This represents a cumulative of $65 million and $15 million respectively.

The bill includes $1 trillion earmarked for investment in child care and early learning systems within HHS, according to the summary of the law drafted by Senate Democrats.

The Child Care and Development Block Grant would see an increase in investment of $725 million, or 9%, from existing levels, for a total of $8. 8 billion in appropriations. Another $12. 27 billion would be spent on Head Start programs, a backlog of $275 million from the existing level.

“The sustained annual increases in our federal investments in child care and Head Start are critical to addressing the child care crisis and helping to ensure that more families can find the capable, quality child care and early childhood education features they need,” Senate Democrats said. . says the summary. As a result of the new investments in this bill, the annual discretionary investment for CCDBG and Head Start over the past three fiscal years has increased to $4. 4 billion. »

The Department of Education’s spending would be spent on many initiatives, adding $24. 6 billion for student cash assistance programs.

Pell Grants, which are paid to approximately 7 million low-income scholars, would continue to earn a maximum grant of $7,395 in the 2024-2025 school year. The federal work-study program for school scholars would also get $1. 2 billion in funding.

The Labor-HHS-Education bill continues to come with what’s known as the Hyde Amendment, which prohibits the use of federal investment for abortion for rape, incest, or the life of the pregnant person.

This decades-old provision, first added in the 1970s in another form, affects patients in federal health care systems such as Medicaid and Medicare.

Similar provisions on abortion exist in many other government investment bills.

The Legislative Appropriations Bill includes $6. 75 billion for Capitol Hill operations, investments similar to the party’s summer conventions and the presidential nomination in January 2025.

The bill would increase investment for the U. S. Capitol Police. U. S. tax revenue to $792 million, up 7. 8% from fiscal 2023.

The measure includes investments for Capitol Police officer retention and recruitment programs, adding student loan repayment and tuition reimbursement. Officers with the Capitol Police, the security force at the Capitol complex, reported a drop in morale in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack. 2021, attack on the U. S. Capitol.

“This is a critical investment in democracy and oversight that strengthens the legislative branch’s ability to better serve the public,” said Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island who chairs the Legislative Branch Appropriations Subcommittee. “This bill provides the investment and infrastructure needed for the U. S. Capitol Police to come to the Capitol complex and keep it available to the public. “

A joint explanation accompanying the bill says the measure would allow the Capitol Police $2 million to protect members of Congress outside the Capitol compound and in the Washington, D. C. , area. Members have faced increased threats in recent years.

The measure also invests in quadrennial events such as presidential elections.

The Capitol Police would get $3. 2 million in overtime for national political conventions (those of Republicans in Milwaukee and those of Democrats in Chicago) over the summer and to prepare for the inauguration in January.

The inauguration day will take place in the next fiscal year, which begins in October, but expenses related to its preparation would likely be incurred this year. The bill would allocate only about $3. 7 million for salaries and expenses related to the inauguration.

The bill would provide $16. 6 million for the Capitol grounds, House and Senate offices, as well as the Capitol power plant.

The measure includes a provision that would recover unspent budget from members’ appropriations, accounts that reimburse senators and representatives for their official expenses. The unspent budget from those accounts would be used to pay off the national debt.

The move is a long-standing policy of freezing members’ salaries.

Congress plans to allocate just over $58. 3 billion to the State Department, the U. S. Agency for International Development and similar programs, adding emergency refugee assistance and diplomatic activities.

Republican lawmakers are touting across-the-board relief in the bill, down from the year’s total of $59. 7 million.

The bill includes $11. 8 million for the U. S. State Department and USAID and $10. 3 million for foreign development, adding a loan to the International Monetary Fund to provide economic assistance to some of the world’s poorest countries.

The bill allocates $10 million to global fitness projects aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis, as well as immunization systems for children.

On health care funding, Democrats praised the bill for “protecting long-standing funding,” as Murray’s office noted, for family planning and reproductive health in deficient countries around the world, for which only about $524 million has been allocated. remaining at the same point as the existing spending point.

Funding to the president for multilateral assistance to foreign organizations and systems, ranging from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to systems for torture victims, is expected to fall to $436. 9 million from last year’s $508. 6 million investment point.

This relief partly reflects existing political tensions similar to the war between Israel and Hamas.

The bill does not provide investments for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), a major humanitarian organization in the Palestinian Gaza Strip and the West Bank territories. Many Western countries cut investments in UNRWA after Israel accused thirteen of its workers in the October 7 attacks and many others for sympathizing with Hamas and other militant groups. The company earned $75 million in fiscal 2023.

Another notable absence in the bill is the investment for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, which got $17. 5 million in the year’s investment bill.

Republicans celebrated the defunding of the agency’s investigation into human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, opened through the U. N. Human Rights Council after an outbreak of violence in May 2021. The investigation began collecting evidence of war crimes “committed by all sides” soon after. Hamas attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing about 1,200 more people and taking about 240 hostages.

The bill will cover the $3. 3 billion annual commitment to Israel this year, among the $8. 9 million in security for foreign governments.

The U. S. International Funding Roadmap expands several programs and adds authorization for the issuance of an additional 12,000 special immigration visas for Afghans who aided the U. S. in its war in Afghanistan.

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The bill would also fund Congress, the president’s office, the judiciary and the Social Security administration.

The 1,012-page spending package provides investment for a slew of programs, adding several that lawmakers will promote as a campaign trail ahead of the November election.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday morning that the package is “another impediment toward our ultimate goal of investing in the federal government. “

After the House votes to pass the package, most likely on Friday, Schumer said “the Senate will want bipartisan cooperation to pass it before the Friday deadline and the shutdown. “

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said at a press convention Wednesday that he expects senators to hold consultations this weekend to make final votes on the package.

“My assumptions and what I’ve told our members is that we’ll probably be here this weekend. However, it will depend on how long he stays in the House,” McConnell said.

“And when we get to that point, what we’ve done recently — and I think this will work again, I hope — is that, in exchange for a series of amendments, we can get it done more quickly, hopefully, than putting ourselves in the position of shutting down the government,” McConnell added.

The House can hold a vote without problems within that time, but the Senate will have to reach an agreement among its 100 members in order to vote beyond that time.

Here’s a look at where Congress has the most investment and where it has cut spending on those six government investment expenditures for fiscal year 2024, which began Oct. 1.

The joint explanatory memorandum accompanying the draft law urges the Ministry of Defence to inform itself about the reasons why the army has difficulties in recruiting.

The Secretary of Defense will also brief the Defense Appropriations Subcommittees on a proposal to increase the pay of young enlisted troops.

According to the joint explanatory memorandum, it provides $129 million for the salaries and expenses of the U. S. Supreme Court and $20 million for construction and its grounds.

The president’s executive would get about $872. 5 million, a minimum of $6 million from the 2023 budget level, according to a summary of the bill by Democrats.

The bill would provide the U. S. Consumer Product Safety Commission with the power to protect the safety of the product. An investment of approximately $151 million, a minimum of $1. 5 million. The bill prohibits the CPSC from banning fuel stoves, “which would be the customer’s choice,” according to a summary of the GOP bill.

The CPSC has taken regulatory action to ban fuel stoves. Agency officials have raised concerns about indoor air quality in fuel stoves, and lately the company is reading the effects of those fuel emissions on human health.

The Electoral Assistance Commission would receive relief of $280,000 in funding, for a total of $27. 7 million.

The bill provides $19 to U. S. Customs and Border Protection, a $3 increase from existing levels, and more than $9. 6 to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an increase of $1. 1.

The Clerk’s Office and its branch would get $404 million, a backlog of about $20 million. Approximately $30 million of that investment would be used to “support the reunification of families who were unjustly separated at the U. S. -Mexico border during the Trump administration. “,” according to the summary of the bill drafted by House Democrats.

FEMA’s investment would go to several projects, $20 billion to alleviate the crisis.

The HHS investment would flow across many fitness programs, adding up to a backlog of $300 million for the National Institutes of Health, for a total spending of $48. 6 billion.