American congressional leaders pitch members on $1.2 trillion spending package

Leaders from both political parties in Congress are trying to make a $1. 2 trillion spending plan sound good. They want to approve it before money runs out for important government agencies on Friday.

The new law’s details were not available on Wednesday afternoon, but lawmakers and their assistants were expecting it to be officially revealed later in the day or early Thursday. The package is likely to be approved, and it will finish Congress’s work on spending bills for the year, which is almost six months after the fiscal year started.

This year, twelve spending bills were put into two groups. The first bill was approved by Congress two weeks ago, just in time before the agencies would have to shut down.

Congress is now working on a bigger package that has $886 billion for defense. This is about a three percent increase from last year. The bill gives money to the Departments of Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor, and others. Non-military spending is expected to stay about the same as last year.

The leaders tried to convince the members to buy the package. In a private meeting with GOP lawmakers, Speaker Mike Johnson talked about some of the policy changes that House Republicans were able to get in the latest negotiations. This means that the United Nations won’t give money to help Palestinian refugees until March 2025. He also said that the bill pays for 8,000 more beds for people who are not citizens and are waiting for their immigration hearings or to be sent out of the country.

Johnson said that it was really hard to agree on the Homeland Security part because the two parties are very far apart. “I believe that we were able to include a lot of important things in the final product, and we got some victories. It’s going in the direction we want, even though we have a small majority. ”

The House will vote on the second package on Friday. Lawmakers will have more than a day to look at the law. But, this bypasses a House rule that says lawmakers should have 72 hours to review major laws before voting on them.

This is making some House Republicans angry, but if we follow the rule, it would likely mean that some important federal agencies might not have enough money for a day or two.

Once the bill is approved by the House, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer from New York will take charge. He said he will bring it to the Senate for discussion.

“Schumer said it will be difficult to get the funding package before the weekend deadline, even if both parties work together. ”

The Democrats were happy that they stopped most of the rules that the Republicans wanted in the spending bills. These rules included making it harder to get the abortion pill and banning gender-affirming health care.

“We are where we expected to be,” said the representative. Pete Aguilar from California. We were aware that the House Democrats, Senate Democrats, Senate Republicans and the White House were not going toallow any big harmful cuts and unreasonable policy changes.

The bill’s spending mostly follows an agreement made by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and the White House in May 2023. This agreement limited spending for two years and delayed the debt ceiling until January 2025 so the government could keep paying its bills.

“Sen said we had to follow some tough rules and fight against many bad ideas from Republican, including some very severe cuts proposed by House Republicans. ” Patty Murray is the leader of the Democratic group in charge of deciding on how to spend the government’s money. “Now we have a great bill that both political parties agree on. It helps to protect important investments in the American people. ”

McCarthy lost his position as speaker a few months after making a deal about the debt ceiling. Eight Republicans joined with Democrats to remove McCarthy as speaker. Some people who didn’t like the debt ceiling deal were also worried about the new package.

Johnson plans to put the bill up for a vote using a faster process. The bill needs two-thirds support to pass. The first spending package was approved with a vote of 339-85. Most of the no votes came from Republicans, with only two from other parties.

Rep said, “If this bill is not dealt with for two weeks, it will be heavily criticized. ” Chip Roy is from Texas and is a member of the Republican party. “They want to push it through in the next 2 days. ”

“I wish we will have some small wins. ” Sadly, I don’t think we will achieve many important policy wins because of our history and our unwillingness to use leverage to force policy changes. This means we are not willing to walk away and say no. Bob Good, who is Republican from Virginia.

Johnson wanted to stop giving money to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which helps people in Gaza with food, water, and shelter, until March 2025. Republicans want to stop giving money to the agency because Israel said some of the agency’s workers were part of the attack by Hamas in Israel. “This is an important report. ”

The United States They give the agency a lot of money – about $364 million in 2022 and $371 million in 2023. After Israel accused the agency of something, the Biden administration stopped giving them money. Republicans want to make the ban last longer.

However, some lawmakers are worried about the ban because many relief agencies say there is no other way to provide the humanitarian aid that the United States and others are trying to send to Gaza.