Congressional leaders have reached a bipartisan agreement to maintain funding for the government past the upcoming Dec. 20 shutdown deadline.
Laws enacted by the leadership on Tuesday would push back Friday’s funding deadline to March 14 to buy more time for the next Congress and the fresh president to work out how to fund the government for much of next year.
The newly unveiled 1,500-page package also includes numerous additions, including a one-year extension of the farm bill, about $100 billion in disaster relief, about $10 billion in economic aid for farmers and other authorizations.
The deal caps weeks of negotiations over disaster relief and overall funding – most recently a dispute over farm aid – and marks the final funding deal from a divided Congress before Washington welcomes its next class in January.
Details of the deal were already known come into focus ahead of Tuesday’s release, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) prepared members for the major package, including disaster relief for areas hit demanding by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.
The bill includes more than $30 billion in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as officials have expressed alarm over the agency’s disaster relief fund in recent months.
Lawmakers agreed to more than $2 billion in funding for the Small Business Administration after officials said its disaster loan program — which businesses and homeowners rely on for low-interest loans to recover from disasters — would not be available during hurricane season had more resources.
The bill also includes $10 billion in economic aid for farmers and billions more in disaster relief for farmers.
Farm aid has emerged as a key sticking point in recent days, and the deal came after some Republicans threatened to vote against the stopgap measure if it didn’t provide economic aid for farmers and ranchers.
The bill too Contains 500 pages of health care regulationsThese include reforms to the pharmaceutical benefit manager (PBM) industry, expansions of Medicare telemedicine flexibilities, reauthorizations of pandemic prevention laws and addressing the opioid crisis, payments to community health centers, and a reversal of physician payment cuts.
And it includes a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill and an extension of authorization for the National Flood Insurance Program.
In total, House Republican leadership said the proposed emergency and disaster funding included in the continuing resolution is about $110 billion, not including offsets.
“I’m always happy to look at the offsets that we have that we can pass, and so far we haven’t been able to get anything to get the votes for it,” said Tom Cole (R-Okla. Chairwoman of the House Budget Committee). ) told The Hill on Tuesday when asked about previous discussions about Offsets.
Still, the lack of offsets is sure to anger conservatives, who are demanding that additional funding be offset by savings elsewhere.
Johnson said the aim was “a very simple, very clean” bridging funding plan “to get us into next year when we have a unified government”. However, he added that “force majeure” such as hurricanes required disaster relief and other additions to the package.
Other additions to the legislation include the reauthorization of the Unmanned Aerial Systems Defense Program.
The add-ons contained in the bill and the delayed introduction frustrated Republicans from all corners of the conference on Tuesday as they awaited the text of the measure.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) complained that it was a year-end omnibus that conservatives loathe. And Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, called it “a total dumpster fire.”
“The appetite to take the risk of shutting down the government is not there. “That’s the playbook that they’ve been using quite successfully for a long time,” said Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, after the party was briefed on the contents of the deal earlier Tuesday.
“At some point we have to bring this to their attention,” Norman said.
The House is expected to move quickly on the legislation as both chambers face severe time constraints to get the package across the finish line and avoid a shutdown before the holidays.
Johnson said earlier on Tuesday that the aim was to go through “a regular process” of considering the text in the House of Commons. If he goes that route, lawmakers would be unable to vote on the text until Friday at the earliest under the House’s 72-hour rule — which would mean the Senate would have to act quickly before the midnight Friday funding deadline.
Negotiators expressed confidence they could complete their funding work within the proposed three-month time frame, but some were hoping for a shorter stopgap measure to put pressure on Congress to commit spending sooner next year. Defense activists have also raised concerns about what the funding freeze could mean for the Pentagon.
Some Republicans have also expressed concerns that delaying the bills until next year could distract from other priorities the party wants to address in President-elect Trump’s first months in the Oval Office.
The deal has won support from Democrats in both chambers.
Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said the bipartisan package will “provide critical relief to communities across the country and invest $100 billion to help Americans rebuild and recover.”
She and other Democrats also praised a portion of the bill that they said would cover replacement costs for the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
“With the inclusion of our Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act in the continuing resolution, Congress is now required to cover the full cost of replacing the bridge. This will allow the bridge to be built as quickly as possible,” Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a joint statement Tuesday.
“Our provision also ensures that federal taxpayers are compensated by proceeds from insurance payments and litigation by the Department of Justice, the Maryland Attorney General and others.”
Emily Brooks, Mychael Schnell and Nathaniel Weixel contributed. Updated at 7:30 p.m
