US senators were racing against the clock Friday to vote on a package of funding bills for key federal agencies to avert a partial government shutdown ahead of a midnight deadline.
The $460 billion package — already passed by the House of Representatives — is expected to get broad support, but lawmakers were yet to lock in a timeline for holding a vote, amid Republican infighting over spending cuts.
Five months into the fiscal year, Congress has yet to approve the 12 annual bills that make up the federal budget, with the lights due to go out across several departments and agencies this weekend.
Thrashed out over months of intense bipartisan negotiation, the deal would allow key departments and agencies including agriculture, commerce, justice, science, environment, housing and transport to function until the end of the fiscal year, on September 30.
Some of the most contentious battles — over bills funding Congress, the military and border security — have been put off for a second package that needs to reach President Joe Biden’s desk by March 22.
A partial shutdown would begin to threaten an array of government functions on Saturday, potentially including food inspections, air traffic controllers’ pay, veterans’ benefits or science and technology research.
The first package had a relatively smooth path through the House on Wednesday, although figures on the Republican right voiced disappointment that it failed to address several Republican policy priorities.
The agreement adds an extra $1 billion for a federal nutritional program for low-income mothers and their babies, a key Democratic funding priority, increases rental assistance and boosts spending on veterans.
There are cuts of up to 10 percent for agencies regularly in Republican crosshairs, including the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (AFT).
– ‘Deep cuts’ –
“This legislation forbids the Department of Justice from targeting parents exercising their right to free speech before school boards, while it blocks the Biden administration from stripping Second Amendment rights from veterans,” House speaker Mike Johnson said.
“It imposes deep cuts to the EPA, ATF and FBI, which under the Biden administration have threatened our freedoms and our economy, while it fully funds veterans’ health care,” he said.
Republican infighting over amendments to the legislation and “earmarks” — provisions circumventing the normal competition process to direct funds to lawmakers’ pet projects — are threatening the timing of the vote, however.
Conservatives were demanding that the leadership in both parties allow a vote on reinstating an earmark ban overturned by Democrats in 2021, effectively stripping more than $12 billion from the bill.
They highlighted examples of what they see as profligate spending, including $1 million for an environmental justice center in New York, $4 million for a waterfront walkway in New Jersey and $3.5 million for a Thanksgiving parade in Michigan.
“American taxpayers should not be used as a political piggy bank. Earmarks have been so badly abused that we can’t let it go on like this any longer,” Florida’s Rick Scott said on the Senate floor.
The proposal is unpopular among more than a dozen Republicans with earmarks, and the Senate’s Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has rejected the move.
He announced that the Senate would seek to advance the package for final passage later Friday, although the conservatives could drag out the row into the weekend, forcing the shutdown to begin.
“We’re close to the finish line, but it will take bipartisan cooperation to get us there,” Schumer said.
