WASHINGTON — Congressional leaders unveiled a comprehensive year-end package Tuesday that would provide more than $100 billion in disaster relief and give lawmakers more time to complete overdue work on government funding, the farm bill and some other issues they decided they couldn’t finish .
The disaster relief portion of the package will escalate funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Agriculture, the Small Business Administration and several other federal agencies to continue their ongoing relief efforts following a series of natural disasters over the past two years.
The 1,547-page package would give Congress until mid-March to complete work on the dozen annual government funding bills that were scheduled to take effect by Oct. 1.
In addition, the agricultural law will be extended until September 30, 2025. In a victory for corn growers, the law includes a provision that allows a gasoline blend containing up to 15% ethanol to be sold nationwide year-round.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, said during a news conference before the bill’s public release that he had hoped the year-end stopgap spending bill would simply extend current funding through next year if the GOP The House of Representatives, the Senate and the Whites will govern the House.
“But a few things happened in between. We had what we describe as acts of God. We had these massive hurricanes, if you know, in the late fall – Helene and Milton and other disasters,” Johnson said. “We must ensure that Americans devastated by these hurricanes receive the help they need. That’s why we’re adding a disaster relief package to the mix, and that’s critically important.”
“Also significant is the devastation our farming community is facing,” he said. “The agricultural sector is really struggling. They’ve basically had three lost years and commodity prices are pretty messed up. And input costs have skyrocketed because of Bidenomics.”
Johnson defended his decision to include the other provisions in the stopgap bill, also known as a continuing resolution. Many Republicans have expressed frustration with his decision to bundle all the bills into one package rather than pass them individually.
“We need to be able to help those who are in this emergency, and that’s the extent of the pages on this,” Johnson said.
The ranking member of the House Budget Committee, Rosa DeLauro, a Democrat from Connecticut, said in a written statement that she would support the bill when that chamber votes on it later this week.
“While I – and so many of my colleagues on both sides of the aisle – wish we were voting on full-year funding bills, I am pleased that this package includes critical resources for American farmers, emergency defense investments, and investments in the Virginia… Class includes submarine program and increased funding for child care,” DeLauro wrote. “This includes protecting foreign investment, which I have long fought for, to prevent American dollars from driving the policies of the Chinese Communist Party with our capital and capabilities.”
“However, I am concerned that we were unable to agree on additional funding for veterans’ health care, and we must be vigilant and ensure that the new administration does not ration promised care to every affected veteran,” DeLauro added. “The passage of this bill should mark the beginning of negotiations on final funding legislation for 2025. The start of a new Congress does not change the reality that any funding legislation will continue to require the support of Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate to become law.”
Hurricanes, tornadoes, bridge collapses
President Joe Biden called on Congress to approve nearly $100 billion in emergency relief to bolster the accounts of multiple agencies helping residents, compact businesses, farmers, and local and state governments recover from dozens of natural disasters.
The supplemental emergency request came shortly after Hurricanes Helene and Milton caused widespread devastation in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
Funding will also support communities recover from tornadoes across the Midwest. the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland; and severe storms in Alaska, Connecticut, Illinois, Louisiana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
The disaster relief portion of the spending package would include:
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$29 billion for FEMA’s disaster relief fund
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$21 billion in disaster relief for farmers and ranchers
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$12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant Program for disaster relief
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$10 billion in economic aid for farmers and ranchers
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$8 billion for the Department of Transportation for federal highway disaster relief
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$3.25 billion for state and tribal grants for water infrastructure repairs.
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$2.2 billion for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program
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$1.3 billion to replace the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland
Congress was heading toward the finish line
The package is expected to pass the House and Senate before members leave for the holidays on Friday. Biden is expected to sign the bill.
When Congress reconvenes on January 3 to begin the 119th Congress, the Senate will switch from Democratic to Republican control. The House remains red, albeit with a slightly smaller majority and very little, possibly no, room for Republican lawmakers to vote against partisan bills.
Republicans hope they can operate unified control of Washington, which will begin after President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, to push through sweeping changes to federal spending and policy.
That’s one reason Congress included a second continuing resolution in the package released this week. This emergency aid law will avoid a partial government shutdown until at least March 14th.
This portion of the bill is necessary because Congress abdicated its responsibility for funding the government by failing to complete work on the dozen annual budget bills before the start of the fiscal year on October 1.
Legislature passed another emergency solution bill at the end of September wanted to leave funding largely unchanged through Dec. 20, but did not operate the additional time to negotiate a compromise between the Republican House and Democratic Senate.
Republican leaders have opted to delay these full-year government funding measures until they control both chambers of Congress next year, hoping they can better align final versions of the 12 bills with their goals.
But Republican leaders will still need Democratic support to push final spending bills or other stopgap legislation through the Senate next year if they want to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The Senate requires the vote of at least 60 representatives to advance major legislation toward final passage with a uncomplicated majority. The GOP will have 53 seats next year, which is not up to par. Several Republican senators have also staked their reputation on consistently voting against any spending bill, requiring Democratic votes to prevent a shutdown.
House Republicans will also likely need Democrats to push government funding bills through that chamber, as they too have a sizable faction of members who refuse to vote for, and often against, the full-year budget bills vote for a short-term emergency solution.
Extension of the agricultural law
The year-end overall bill released Tuesday also includes a further extension through next year of the farm bill, a rewrite of which Congress was supposed to pass more than a year ago.
Instead, lawmakers in both chambers have prioritized other interests, work on the legislation was delayed which approves agriculture and nutrition programs.
Congress last passed a farm bill in December 2018, which the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said at the time would cost $428 billion over the five years it was intended to cover.
Funding for nutrition, crop insurance, agricultural commodity programs and conservation accounted for about 99% of legislatively mandated spending, according to a report from the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
Nutrition has become one of the higher-priced farm bill items in recent decades, accounting for about $326 billion of the 2018 farm bill’s mandatory spending. A further 38 billion US dollars flowed into crop insurance, 31 billion US dollars into raw materials and 29 billion US dollars into nature conservation in the five-year period that has now ended.
Nutrition funding goes to several federal food programs for lower-income people, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Emergency Food Assistance Program.
The Republican House and Democratic Senate were unable to resolve their differences over a fresh five-year farm bill, despite giving themselves more than a year to extend it.
The bill that lawmakers will pass this month gives united Republicans in control of Washington another year to get the job done.
DC Deputy Bureau Chief Jacob Fischler contributed to this report.
Last updated on December 17, 2024 at 7:38 p.m
