[ad_1]
WASHINGTON – Congressional leaders unveiled a detailed agreement to keep most government operations open through September 30, as they work hard to avoid another shutdown deadline this weekend.
The US$436 billion (S$586 billion) package, which covers about a quarter of funding for government agencies, is an ideological setback behind a series of shutdown threats and interim patches that the US has operated for more than five months. It marks the first real progress towards resolving the conflict. It includes provisions to block oil sales from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to China and track foreign purchases of U.S. farmland.
But it avoids protracted conflict by excluding funding for social programs administered through the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services. These institutions are currently scheduled to close on March 23, with no funding agreed.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the 1,050-page bill, released March 3, did not contain any “rider” policy language that is anathema to Democrats.
“We are proud to keep the government open without layoffs or drug riders,” he said. He added that Democrats are proud of the level of funding for women, infants, and children (WIC) nutrition programs, infrastructure, and veterans benefits.
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Patty Murray said in a statement that the bill would enhance food assistance under the so-called WIC nutrition program, providing $7.03 billion, an increase of $1.03 billion over current levels.
The House is expected to act on the partial funding measure first and pass the bill before President Joe Biden delivers his annual State of the Union address on March 7. The Senate plans to follow suit, and many of the targeted agencies are expected to run out of funding in Congress. weekend.
The measure includes funding for the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Departments of Agriculture, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs, and Energy. The Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Commerce, Justice and Interior are also targeted.
The bill falls short of conservative demands for deep cuts in domestic spending and includes few conservative policy changes.
One change Republicans were able to secure was new restrictions on how the Department of Veterans Affairs shares information with the federal gun registry.
Currently, when a veteran asks for help managing their benefits, the Firearms Registry is notified that the veteran may not have the ability to own a firearm. The provision would limit sharing to cases in which the veteran poses a danger to himself or others.
The bill would direct authorities to issue warnings about foreign purchases of U.S. farmland, with a focus on entities with ties to China, North Korea, Russia and Iran. While it does not outright ban such purchases, as House Republicans had originally planned, the bill adds the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States to review agricultural transactions.
The bill also updates strategically important agreements with Palau, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia that grant U.S. military access to their territorial waters in exchange for funding.
Republicans touted the bill as a new ban on the Justice Department from targeting or investigating “parents who peacefully protest at school board meetings and who are not suspected of engaging in illegal activity.”
A bitter, weeks-long fight by Republicans to allow states to limit food stamp benefits to more nutritious foods was unsuccessful, according to House Republican leadership officials.
The party acknowledges that overall non-defense funding will not be reduced in the funding agreement, but points out that Biden had called for a $72 billion increase in this category in this year’s budget proposal.
Speaker Mike Johnson said House Republicans have successfully navigated a divided government and a slim majority to shift spending and policy priorities.
“American taxpayers will benefit,” he said in a statement.
Republican officials say flat domestic spending is straining the budgets of some government agencies due to rising medical costs for veterans and food cuts for women and infants.
Veterans Affairs health funding would increase by $2.3 billion from current levels, and the remaining non-defense funds would face cuts to meet the agreed-upon cap.
The bill includes billions of dollars for lawmakers’ pet projects known as earmarks, as Republican leaders agreed to continue the once-banned practice.
Republicans are happy that the bill would divert $20 billion in tax audit funds from the Internal Revenue Service, which they say could be used to harass taxpayers.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the funds were provided as part of Mr. Biden’s flagship economic package in the last Congress, which would generate large amounts of revenue by uncovering tax fraud.
It will also redirect $18 billion of previously approved COVID-19 pandemic funds to other uses. bloomberg
[ad_2]
Source link
