US Senate strikes deal to vote on spending bill just as funding expires

Senators struck a deal late Friday night to pave the way for the passage of a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund more than half the government, with a final vote set for the early hours of Saturday morning.

The agreement, which allowed Senate Republicans to hold a series of politically charged votes on proposed changes, came after hours of haggling that threatened to push the government into a brief partial shutdown over the weekend. Instead, it appeared that the funding lapse, which started at midnight, would last a matter of hours and have no practical effect.

“It’s been a very long and difficult day,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, said in announcing the deal. “But we have just reached an agreement to complete the job of funding the government. It is good for the country that we have reached this bipartisan deal. It wasn’t easy, but our persistence has been worth it.”

The White House said that President Joe Biden would sign the bill on Saturday and that the government had halted shutdown preparations. But the delay underscored the difficulties that have plagued spending negotiations from the beginning, and was a fitting coda to an excruciating set of talks that are on track to fund the government six months behind schedule.

It capped an extraordinary day on Capitol Hill that began with a bipartisan vote to speed the measure through the House, which set off a conservative revolt and prompted one Republican to threaten a bid to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his post.

Earlier Friday, in a 286-134 vote that came down to the wire in the House as leaders scrounged for the two-thirds majority needed for passage, Democrats rallied to provide the support to overcome a furious swell of opposition by conservative Republicans.

Infuriated by the bipartisan spending agreement, the hard right balked, and as the vote was still ongoing, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., began the process of calling for a vote to oust Johnson.

Greene told reporters on the House steps minutes after the vote that she would not seek an immediate vote on his removal, but had begun the process as a “warning” because his actions were a “betrayal.”

“This was our leverage,” Greene said of spending legislation. “This is our chance to secure the border, and he didn’t do it. And now this funding bill passed without the majority of the majority.”

The 1,012-page legislation, which lumped six spending bills into one package, faced an uphill climb in the House after ultraconservatives revolted over the measure. They delivered a series of incensed speeches from the floor that accused Johnson of negotiating legislation that amounted to an “atrocious attack on the American people,” as Greene put it.

No other Republican has said publicly that they would support ousting Johnson, and Democrats have signaled in recent weeks that they might be inclined to help protect him should he face a GOP threat to his post.

But the bill’s passage came at a steep political price for Johnson, who was forced to violate an unwritten but sacrosanct rule among House Republicans that Greene alluded to against bringing up legislation that cannot draw support from a majority of their members. Just 101 Republicans, fewer than half, supported it.

That left it to Democrats to again supply the bulk of the votes to push the bill through.

“Once again, it’s going to be House Democrats that carry necessary legislation for the American people to the finish line,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic leader, told reporters at the Capitol before the vote.

Republicans won the inclusion of a number of provisions in the spending package, including funding for 2,000 new Border Patrol agents, additional detention beds run by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and a provision cutting off aid to the main UN agency that provides assistance to Palestinians. It also increases funding for technology at the southern border by about 25 per cent, while cutting funding for the State Department and foreign aid programs by roughly 6 per cent.

“House Republicans achieved conservative policy wins, rejected extreme Democrat proposals and imposed substantial cuts while significantly strengthening national defense,” Johnson said in a statement after the vote. “The process was also an important step in breaking the omnibus muscle memory and represents the best achievable outcome in a divided government.”

Yet conservatives said the legislation was insufficiently conservative, citing the $1.2 trillion price tag. They were particularly infuriated to see $200 million in fresh funding for the new FBI headquarters in Maryland, as well as earmarked funding requested by senators for LGBTQ+ centers.

“We got rid of all our poison riders, and Schumer wouldn’t agree to take away their poisonous earmarks,” said Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., chair of the Appropriations subcommittee overseeing labor and health programs, who opposed the legislation.

Before the vote Friday morning, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., had fumed that the bill was “chock-full of crap” and urged Johnson to be more combative in negotiations with Democrats.

“Doggone it, fight!” Biggs said. “This is capitulation; this is surrender.”

Democrats secured a combined $1 billion in new funding for federal child care and education programs, and a $120 million increase in funding for cancer research.

“This legislation does not have everything either side may have wanted,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. “But I am satisfied that many of the extreme cuts and the policies proposed by House Republicans were rejected.”

Standing on the House floor minutes later, Biggs ruefully agreed with DeLauro’s assessment.

“And yet somehow Republicans are going to vote for that?” he said. “That’s outrageous. She’s right, though: She got the spending. She killed the riders.”