|
Congress Returns as Funding Deadlines Near
The House and Senate are both back in session this week needing to act on four appropriations bills -- Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Energy and Water Development, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs -- by January 19th to avoid a partial government shutdown.
Timely action from Congress looks likelier than it did last week, as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) agreed on topline spending numbers over the weekend. Their deal largely mirrors the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA), the deal that President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached early last year, with a very similar topline number of $1.66 trillion.
There are two big differences, however. $10 billion in IRS cuts, due to take effect next year, would be pushed up to this year instead, and $6.1 billion in Covid relief funding would be rescinded.
The deal now faces hurdles in the form two overlapping, but not identical, groups of Republicans: those who think the agreement doesn't cut enough spending, and a growing number who have floated threat of a shutdown to force Congress to act on the border.
NEMWI will continue to monitor the appropriations process.
Reported by NEMWI staff member Alex Eastman
| 
