Lawmakers released the text of a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill overnight ahead of a Friday deadline to avert a government shutdown.
House and Senate negotiators reached a deal last week to fund the government through the end of fiscal 2023 and worked through the weekend drafting the 4,155-page bill. Government funding had been set to expire last Friday at midnight, but Congress passed a one-week extension to give appropriators more time to hammer out the details.
JAN. 6 COMMITTEE PREVIEWS FINAL REPORT WITH RELEASE OF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The legislation would approve $858 billion in defense spending and $772 billion in nondefense discretionary spending, both up over last year’s levels. Negotiators scrapped Democrats’ demand for “parity” between military and social spending, a key win for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY). Democrats, for their part, were able to secure $5 billion in earmarks for more than 3,200 projects.
The legislation includes an additional $45 billion for the war in Ukraine, higher than what President Joe Biden requested, and $41 billion for disaster relief. The Electoral Count Reform Act, a bipartisan bill designed to make it more difficult to overturn a presidential election, made it into the final legislation, as did Sen. Josh Hawley’s (R-MO) measure banning the use of TikTok on government devices.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), the top Democratic negotiator in the Senate, rebuffed calls by conservative lawmakers to wait to consider an omnibus spending bill until after Jan. 3, when Republicans take over the House.
“A continuing resolution into the New Year does not, nor would it provide assistance to Ukraine or help to communities recovering from natural disasters,” he said in a Tuesday statement. “The choice is clear. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Notably, the bill does not include tax provisions such as an expansion of the child tax credit or a marijuana banking bill Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) sought to add.
The Senate will consider the legislation first, with a time agreement needed to speed up a vote. It remains to be seen whether any Republican senators will throw up a roadblock to the bill’s passage. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) put lawmakers on notice that members will stay in town until the omnibus is passed, with consideration of the bill no earlier than late Wednesday.
