WASHINGTON: Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress were moving forward with a $1.66 trillion government funding bill, scrambling to pass a measure, which includes record military spending, before temporary funding runs out on Friday.
The total funding proposed by the sweeping bill, released early on Tuesday, is up from the approximately $1.5 trillion the previous year.
It includes other measures agreed on by negotiators from both parties, including a ban on the use of TikTok on government-owned devices and clarification of Congress’s role in certifying elections, an attempt to avoid a repeat of the violence of Jan. 6, 2021.
Senate and House of Representatives leaders aim to pass the 4,155-page bill and send it to Democratic President Joe Biden by the end of the week to ensure no interruptions to the government’s activities. “We’re going to get going on this process today,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said, referring to votes that could occur on Tuesday on procedural steps that would clear the way for passage by Friday.
Failure could bring a partial government shutdown beginning Saturday, just before Christmas, and possibly lead into a months-long standoff after Republicans take control of the House on Jan. 3, breaking the grip of Biden’s Democrats on both chambers of Congress.
“From funding for nutrition programs and housing assistance, to home energy costs and college affordability, our bipartisan, bicameral, omnibus appropriations bill directly invests in providing relief from the burden of inflation on the American people,” Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy said in a statement. Included in the bill is $44.9 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine and NATO allies and $40.6 billion to assist communities across the United States recovering from natural disasters and other matters.
The Ukraine funds would be used for military training, equipment, logistics and intelligence support, as well as for replenishing U.S. equipment sent to Kyiv. It also includes funding to prepare for and respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin has not ruled out the use of nuclear weapons in the conflict with Ukraine.
This money would be on top of the record $858 billion in military spending for the year, which is up from last year’s $740 billion and also exceeds Biden’s request. On the non-defense side of the ledger, the bill’s negotiators have set funding at $800 billion, a $68 billion increase over the previous year.
Democrats and Republicans alike had aimed to tuck as many legislative wish-list items as possible into the “omnibus” bill funding the government through the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30, 2023, without derailing the whole package.
This was the second year in a row Congress included funding for hundreds of largely unrelated projects requested by individual lawmakers. Congress had abandoned such “earmarks” a decade ago after a series of corruption scandals, but have brought them back in recent years as a way to build legislative buy-in for spending bills. –Agencies
