WASHINGTON — After Democratic and Republican leaders in Congress struck a deal over the weekend to fund the government, the Washington lawmaker who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee pledged to work “around the clock” to pass legislation before two looming deadlines.
Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat who chairs the panel in charge of crafting annual bills to fund the government, released a statement after her party’s leaders in the House and Senate announced the agreement to spend roughly $1.6 trillion to fund federal programs through the end of September, when the current fiscal year concludes. Lawmakers have less than two weeks to pass a bill to avoid a partial government shutdown.
“We now have a framework agreement to allow us to finally begin the hard work of negotiating — and passing — full-year spending bills,” Murray said. “We cannot afford to delay further, so I will be working with my colleagues around the clock in the coming days to prevent a needless shutdown and pass bipartisan spending bills free of partisan poison pills that protect key investments and help meet the challenges our constituents are facing.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana announced the deal in a letter to his fellow Republicans on Sunday, calling the top-line spending number a win for fiscal conservatives after Democrats pushed for higher total spending.
In total, it includes roughly $886 billion in defense spending and $772 billion in “discretionary” spending that Congress must approve each year. The majority of federal spending is mandatory, meaning that it continues without congressional action.
The deal rescinds more than $6 billion in pandemic emergency spending and hastens cuts to the Internal Revenue Service budget, which were previously agreed to. That wasn’t enough for the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, which called the deal “total failure” in a statement on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While Freedom Caucus members were likely to vote against any bipartisan funding bill, as they have historically, the opposition from Johnson’s right flank threatens to sink the agreement. His predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy of California, was ousted last year after he angered hardline Republicans by making a spending deal with President Joe Biden.
“The bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities,” Biden said in a statement, noting that it aligns with the funding levels he negotiated with McCarthy in May 2023. “It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies.”
Murray and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the Senate’s top GOP appropriator, and their counterparts in the House face two deadlines to fund the government before certain programs shut down and some government workers are sent home or forced to work without pay. Funds for about 20% of the government — including for some aid to veterans, as well as food and drug safety inspections — run out Jan. 19. The remainder of government funding expires Feb. 2.
The government funding legislation is separate from the supplemental spending package that would pair aid to Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies with funds and policies to address record numbers of immigrants crossing the southern border. Negotiations on that legislation are ongoing, and right-wing anger over a bipartisan spending bill could make them more difficult.
