CNN
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The House voted on Friday to pass a massive $1.7 trillion expense bill which would fund essential government operations in federal agencies and provide emergency aid to Ukraine and natural disaster relief. The bill will then go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Government funding is currently due to expire late Friday night – and lawmakers have raced against time to clear the measure before the deadline. the The Senate passed the legislation on Thursday along with a bill to extend the deadline by a week, to Dec. 30, to allow enough time for the year-long bill to be formally processed and sent to Biden. The House approved the one-week extension on Friday before the final vote on the broader spending bill.
The massive fiscal year 2023 spending bill, known on Capitol Hill as the omnibus, provides $772.5 billion for non-defense domestic programs and $858 billion for funding defense. It includes about $45 billion in emergency aid to Ukraine and NATO allies and about $40 billion to respond to natural disasters such as hurricanes, wildfires and floods.
Other key provisions of the bill include an overhaul of the Voter Count Act of 1887 to make it harder to void a certified presidential election — the first legislative response to the U.S. Capitol insurrection and the campaign relentless pressure from President Donald Trump to stay in power despite losing in 2020.
Among other provisions, the spending bill also includes the Secure Act 2.0, a package to make it easier to save for retirement, and a measure to ban TikTok from government devices.
The package’s legislative text, which is more than 4,000 pages, was released in the middle of the night — around 1:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday — leaving grassroots lawmakers and the public with little time to scrutinize it. its content before it is put to a vote in both chambers.
GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the $1.7 trillion spending bill in a speech on the floor ahead of the House vote.
It is a monstrosity. This is one of the most disgraceful acts I have ever seen in this body,” the California Republican said. “The supply process has failed the American public, and there is no greater example of the nail in the coffin of the greater failure of one-party rule of the House, Senate and Presidency of this bill here.”
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi then spoke in favor of the spending bill while noting that this moment would be “probably my last speech as Speaker of the House on this floor, and I hope make my shortest”.
The California Democrat took issue with McCarthy’s comments, saying she was “sad to hear the Minority Leader say earlier that this legislation is the most shameful thing to see in the House in this Congress.”
“I can’t help wondering if he forgot January 6th? she asked, referring to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
The giant government funding bill was initially stalled in the Senate within days of its release due to a GOP amendment to Trump-era immigration policy, Title 42, which would have was able to sink the entire $1.7 trillion piece of legislation in the Democratic-controlled House.
GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah pushed for a vote on his amendment to keep in place the immigration policy that allows immigrants to be turned away at the border, which Republicans strongly support. Because Lee’s measure was to be set at a simple majority threshold, there were fears it could pass and be added to the government’s funding bill as several centrist Democrats support extending the policy — only for it is then defeated in the House.
But senators made a breakthrough in negotiations Thursday morning.
Sense. Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema and Montana’s Jon Tester drafted an amendment intended to give moderates another way to vote in favor of the Title 42 expansion, which the administration and most Democrats want to get rid of.
As expected, the two amendments were not adopted. Lee’s amendment to extend the Trump-era immigration policy failed 47-50. Cinema-Tester’s alternative Democratic version fell 10-87.
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