The US House of Representatives voted Friday to approve a sprawling $1.2 trillion package to fund the government, provoking an angry response from conservatives and kicking off a race against the clock in the Senate to ensure the lights stay on past a midnight deadline.
Party leaders in the upper chamber were scrambling to agree on a sped-up timeline to green-light the legislation, with just hours left to avert a shutdown of several federal agencies including defense and homeland security.
But the legislation has already been delayed by six months in a Congress which is divided almost evenly between the parties, and has been deadlocked by policy and spending disputes.
Party leaders fear the Senate may struggle to rubber-stamp the House vote before the midnight deadline, with arcane procedural rules threatening to push the action into the weekend.
The House Republicans’ right flank was angered by a lack of stricter border security provisions in the package, as well as the spending figure and the elevated speed with which the deal has been negotiated.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hard-right ally of Donald Trump, threatened to force a vote to remove Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, accusing him of offering too many concessions to Democrats. She signaled in an interview ahead of the vote that she would mull filing a “motion to vacate” the speakership — the move that toppled Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy as party leader last year. The Georgia congresswoman called the funding measure “an atrocious attack on the American people” in an excoriating floor speech.
A lapse in federal funding over Saturday and Sunday would have a limited impact on government operations and would not likely be felt by the public, as long as the spigot was turned back on at the start of the working week. A longer pause could result in thousands of public employees being sent home without pay and a vast array of government operations and services being hit, from airport security to border controls.
Conservative anger – Some public employees in the health sector received messages on Friday warning of a potential shutdown.
“This funding agreement between the White House and congressional leaders is good news that comes in the nick of time,” Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the floor of the upper chamber, putting a positive gloss on the chance of delays.
The funding fight came with both sides pushing their campaign messaging and priorities ahead of November’s presidential election, when President Joe Biden faces Trump.
The first quarter of the budget — six bills covering agriculture, science, veterans’ programs, transport and housing — passed without major drama last month.
Five of the six bills covering the rest of federal spending were straightforward, but disputes over the funding of homeland security delayed the release of the deal, originally expected last weekend.
Vote-counters had expected a couple of dozen Democratic dissenters in the House, including progressives upset about more than $3 billion in funding for Israel included in the package and cuts to UN funding for Gaza.
The Democratic opposition ended up amounting to around two dozen votes, meaning the Republicans, who have a razor-thin majority, were required to contribute around 100 votes to achieve the two-thirds majority. With the deadline looming fast, House Republican leaders had angered rank-and-file conservatives by dropping a rule that requires lawmakers to be given 72 hours to review any legislation before calling votes.
The shutdown deadline comes just before Congress is scheduled to shut up shop for two weeks over Easter, and senators have shown little appetite for a weekend of drama or a delayed start to the holiday. But some two dozen Republican amendments have been submitted, and Democrat Michael Bennet is threatening to gum up the works in protest against the deadlock in the House stalling military aid for Ukraine. – Frankie TAGGART
© 2024 AFP
