House sends $1.2 trillion spending bill to Senate hours before deadline

The House approved a $1.2 trillion spending package Friday, hours before a midnight government shutdown deadline - forcing the Senate up against a ticking clock to take up and pass the measure.

The bill, which passed by a 286 to 134 vote, would fund about three-quarters of the federal government for the next six months, while also raising military pay, eliminating U.S. funding for the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians and bolstering security at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The legislation’s passage in the Senate is not in doubt - it has the support of President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). But a single senator can throw up procedural roadblocks that push the government past the deadline and force a vote days later.

The consequences of a brief shutdown would be mostly muted: Many federal workers at unfunded agencies would be off for the weekend, anyway.

But if a closure goes longer, more than half of IRS employees would face furloughs at the height of tax filing season. Border Patrol officers and about 1.3 million active-duty military personnel would remain on the job without pay. So would Transportation Security Administration screeners, many of whom called in sick as a protest after a previous shutdown dragged on for weeks, sparking nationwide travel delays.

It also would have left Congress with few alternate paths to fund the government. A likely last resort would have been another stopgap resolution to preserve existing funding, potentially triggering cuts to defense spending.

“I want to be very clear: This is it,” Rep. Ken Calvert (Calif.), the top Republican on the Defense Appropriations subcommittee. “Every member must understand the impact of not passing this package. The only other option will be a full continuing resolution which will devastate our national security and put our country at risk.

If the Senate cannot reach an agreement to limit debate, consideration of the legislation - and a government shutdown - could stretch until next week. Schumer on the Senate floor said that Congress has hours to avoid a shutdown and the Senate will “spring into action” as soon as it gets the legislation from the House.

Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) have already signaled that they are likely to offer amendments, which would slow the Senate’s progress on the bill. If the upper chamber cannot reach unanimous consent on how much time to spend on those amendments before a vote later Friday, Schumer would probably have to tee up a vote for Sunday or even Monday instead, due to Senate procedural rules. Both chambers are due to leave Washington for a 16-day recess after Friday, which could add to the pressure on members to work fast.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had to buck the lower chamber’s rules Friday to tee up the quick-fire vote there. That rankled members of the House Freedom Caucus, the GOP conference’s far-right flank, who are already at odds with the speaker over federal spending amounts.

The measure passed the House narrowly; seven fewer votes in favor would have tanked the bill. And while lawmakers were casting their votes, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion to oust Johnson from the speakership - the same procedure that thrust the House into disarray in October and stripped Republicans of much of their bargaining power during spending talks.

“I’m not introducing this to throw the House into chaos,” Greene told reporters afterward, as GOP lawmakers fretted over their slim majority’s future. “… Our country is in crisis, and we need real leaders that know how to fight and know how to walk in a room and don’t get rolled by the deep state, and don’t get rolled by the Democrats.”

Johnson has met repeatedly with the group’s members to hear their concerns, but has frequently chosen instead to look past their demands and rely on Democratic votes to carry spending legislation. That’s how Friday’s vote went, too - like other recent spending bills, this package needed support from two-thirds of the chamber to get around opposition from House Freedom Caucus members on the powerful Rules Committee that sets the agenda for the floor.

On the four major federal funding bills that Johnson has passed since beginning his speakership in October - three last-minute stopgap measures and one larger appropriations package - Democrats have supplied most of the votes.

“It’s got a dangerous cocktail that the swamp has always served, and we’re drunk on it today,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said during floor debate Friday. “What is that cocktail? Earmarks and budget gimmicks.”

The bill, though, marks the completion of Johnson’s first major bipartisan agreement since taking the speaker’s gavel. His predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was ousted over spending disagreements with fellow Republicans, and resigned from Congress in December.

To tame the discord within his GOP conference, Johnson split the 12 annual spending bills, or appropriations, into two packages, hoping separate deadlines would give Republicans more leverage to secure funding cuts and conservative policies.

But in the first funding bill, worth $459 billion, Johnson and Republicans mostly folded on their highest-profile demands. Congress passed that legislation, and Biden signed it, earlier this month.

In Friday’s bill, Johnson was far more successful. Republicans at the negotiating table with White House officials successfully turned provisions to fund the Department of Homeland Security into a broader fight about immigration policy.

“Simply put, this bill ensures that men and women of the Department of Homeland Security who work tirelessly on our behalf have the resources and tools they need to protect this great nation,” Rep. David Joyce (Ohio), the top GOP negotiator on the DHS provisions, said on the House floor. “It reflects strong Republican priorities, cuts wasteful spending, and prioritizes securing the border. We cannot surrender this progress for a wasteful and harmful government shutdown.”

The legislation would increase funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to support roughly 42,000 beds in detention facilities and fund 22,000 Border Patrol agents. It would also cut U.S. contributions by 20 percent to nongovernmental organizations that provide services for new arrivals to the country. Lawmakers who want to restrict immigration argue that the nonprofit groups incentivize illegal crossings.

Republicans were also able to prohibit federal funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) for the next 12 months. Israel has accused some of the agency’s employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks that killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw hundreds more brought back as hostages to the Gaza Strip by the terrorist group Hamas. A U.S. intelligence assessment has reportedly verified some of Israel’s claims about UNRWA.

Democrats, who provided most of the votes to pass the bill, worried aloud that the lack of aid funding would worsen the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

“The mood is one of exasperation. We had to vote not to shut down the government of the United States because the Republicans are not a governing party. They are a chaos party. So we had to do the responsible thing,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told the Washington Post. “But we are leaving for two weeks, outrageously, without having gotten aid to our besieged democratic allies in Ukraine and without having gotten aid to the suffering population of Gaza. That’s just an outrageous situation.”

The bill also includes a 6 percent cut to foreign aid programs, already a minuscule slice of federal spending, and a Republican change to the law to prohibits nonofficial U.S. flags from flying atop American embassies. GOP lawmakers hope to use that provision, a slightly narrower version of which had previously been in place, to prevent Biden-nominated officials from displaying Pride flags at official locations at U.S. diplomatic outposts.

Democrats eliminated other policy provisions to limit abortion access and restrict the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

Certain Democratic priorities also saw significant funding boosts, including $1 billion more for the early-education program Head Start and $1 billion for climate resilience funding at the Defense Department. The legislation also provides an additional 12,000 special immigrant visas for Afghans who assisted the U.S. military and are attempting to escape the Taliban government.