WASHINGTON—The U.S. Senate in the early hours of March 23 passed a $1.2 trillion minibus spending package that was approved by the House on Friday.
The Senate cleared the bill in a 74–24 vote. It will now go to President Joe Biden, who’s expected to sign it.
The passage came as the government had technically gone into a partial shutdown, though a short-lived one lasting only two hours.
The bill, coming in at over 1,000 pages and $1.2 trillion in spending, rocketed through Congress this week after its introduction around 2:00 a.m. on Thursday. After the bill’s passage in the House on March 22, it’s progress in the Senate was delayed for several hours due to a disagreement between Republicans and Democrats about the rules for amending the bill.
Earlier on Friday, the House passed the spending bills in a 286–134 vote, with the majority of Republicans voting against the package. Conservatives were left fuming over spending increases in the deal. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion to force a vote to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) meant as a “warning” to the speaker.
“It’s more of a warning and a pink slip,” Ms. Greene told reporters, as she does “not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos”—as was the case in September when Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), was ousted from the position.
The bill would fund the Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
The Pentagon would get $825 billion—$27 billion more than in the 2023 fiscal year—including $92 million more than requested by the Biden administration to improve U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s deterrence amid the threat from China. There is $108 billion allocated for U.S. security cooperation with Taiwan and $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which consists of training, equipment, and other means to aid Ukraine.
However, direct funding for Ukraine and Taiwan is not in the spending bill as Congress is stuck trying to pass a supplemental assistance package for Taipei and Kyiv as Republicans have called for stringent border measures in exchange. The GOP blocked a Senate bill that consisted of assistance for Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan, and some specific border security measures.
The annual $3.3 billion for Israel is in the bill, as has been the case for the past several years. This comes amid the latest conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
The bill allocates $1.8 billion to the Treasury Department, minus the IRS, which would get $12.3 billion. The appropriation for the IRS would be the same as it was in the 2023 fiscal year.
The appropriations bill also prevents the IRS from transferring more funds from its accounts for enforcement.
Other Appropriations
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would get $61.8 billion, a $1.1 billion increase over the 2023 fiscal year. Customs and Border Protection would receive $400 million toward combating the influx of fentanyl, a major problem as the deadly drug crosses the southern border via cartels and other sources.
The bill allocates $2.2 billion for processing asylum seekers and related purposes.
DHS will have 24 percent more beds in detention centers for illegal immigrants and an additional 22,000 Border Patrol agents, as proposed under a tough border security bill previously passed by the GOP-controlled House that was dead in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The funding also covers 41,500 detention beds proposed under the previous House bill.
There will also be 12,000 additional special immigrant visas awarded to Afghan allies who helped the United States during the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan, from which the United States and its allies hastily withdrew in mid-2021 as the Biden administration came under fire for abandoning those allies who served in numerous roles, such as interpreters.
The Department of Health and Human Services would receive $116.8 billion, a $3.9 billion decrease from the 2023 fiscal year, though the National Institutes of Health would get $48.6 billion this year, $300 million more than last year.
The Education Department would get $79.1 billion, a $500 million decrease from the 2023 fiscal year.
The State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development would get $11.8 billion, a $5.6 billion decrease from the 2023 fiscal year.
This includes $300 million for Taiwan and conditions assistance to Gaza, which Hamas controls.
No funding was allocated through March 2025 for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA has come under fire for what critics call propagating hatred for Jewish people in schools.
Moreover, the bill also includes $200 million for the new FBI headquarters, which will be built just outside Washington in Greenbelt, Maryland—a contentious issue for Republicans.
Not Everyone Satisfied
Both Democrats and Republicans got policy victories, though some members on both sides are expected to oppose the bill despite the expected overwhelming support it will get in both the House and Senate.
“We’re in a bad spot. And it’s a bad process, but we’re in a bad spot because previously we’ve done things we ought not to have done. And I believe we need to push back on the Senate,” Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) told The Epoch Times.
“But do we push back on this moment in history? Probably not,” he continued. “But we need to be laying the pieces to a future understanding where we have some power to tell the Senate to pound sand.”
Finally, despite Ms. Greene filing a motion to vacate, it does not appear that Mr. Johnson’s speakership is in jeopardy, whereas his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), was stripped of the gavel after pushing through a spending bill.
“If we vacate this speaker, we’ll end up with a Democrat speaker,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the push to oust Mr. McCarthy.
Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), who was one of the members who voted to oust Mr. McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, said he would be against doing the same to Mr. Johnson.
Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus did not hold back their frustration over the bill.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-Va.) railed against the bill, saying it is worse than the spending when the Democrats controlled Congress under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).
“It does seem this bill again maintains the Pelosi-Schumer policies and spending levels exactly,” said Mr. Good. “It actually increases spending levels by about $60 billion that were in place from the omnibus that we all voted against a year and a half ago, but it has some new things that we want to point out here,” he said at a press conference.
Mr. Good lamented the earmarks and $200 million for the new FBI headquarters.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) slammed Congressional GOP leadership over the $1.2 trillion government spending bill, calling it a “swamp glossary”—a reference to Washington’s nickname, “the Swamp.”
“Frankly, our Republican leadership or basically walking swamp glossary,” the Freedom Caucus member said.
He cited what he said are excuses from his party’s leadership such as that the GOP majority in the House is thin.
Mr. Roy said that Republicans who vote for the bill, which is expected to overwhelmingly pass the House, are “risking the election.”
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) called on Mr. Johnson to shut down the House over the $1.2 trillion government spending bill.
He explained that Mr. Johnson could do so by removing a ceremonial ornamented staff called a mace. The mace is in place next to the speaker’s chair when the House is in session and it is a 184-year-old custom.
“Take the mace down, cut the lights off, and say we will not come back until you stop the invasion at the border,” said Mr. Norman, calling for the Democrat-controlled Senate to pass a tough border security bill that the House passed last year.
Earlier this month, Congress passed and President Biden signed a $460 billion bill to fund 30 percent of government agencies including the Justice Department and Department of Transportation.
From The Epoch Times
