Senate leaders announced Wednesday afternoon that they reached a massive two-year budget deal after weeks of negotiations in hopes of averting a government shutdown when funding runs out Thursday at midnight.
The deal would establish budget caps for the next two years, but appropriators need time to draft spending bills for the rest of the year. So the package would keep the government running for six weeks to give Congress enough time to work out the details. It would lift spending caps imposed by the Budget Control Act by almost $300 billion over the next two years to make room for spending priorities, including an $80 billion boost this year for defense spending and a corresponding $63 billion boost in non-defense domestic spending, according to Roll Call.
It would also raise the debt limit ahead of a March deadline; include billions in disaster relief funding and for infrastructure renewal projects; and would extend the recently reauthorized Children’s Health Insurance Program for four additional years, ensuring funds for a decade.
“It’s so much money,” House Freedom Caucus member Scott Perry summarized.
The Senate is expected to pass the package before the shutdown deadline Thursday, leaving the matter in the House’s hands. Conservative Republicans who want a more fiscally responsible agreement are unlikely to lend it their support, meaning votes from Democrats will be needed to pass it through the chamber and on to the president’s desk.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said in his announcement that the agreement doesn’t have everything Democrats want and it doesn’t have everything Republicans want, but it has “a great deal” of what the American people want.
All eyes are on House Democrats, many of whom have demanded a replacement for the soon-to-expire Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in the next must-pass spending bill. Such a fix is not included in the agreement, which could cause trouble when it comes to the floor for a vote Thursday.
Alongside his own announcement, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reiterated his pledge to hold a vote on legislation to protect nearly 700,000 unauthorized immigrants ahead of DACA’s March 5 expiration deadline in a process he said would be “fair to all sides.”
