Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced details of the first six major budget bills on Sunday to prevent a partial government shutdown, which House conservatives are calling “pathetic.” Federal funding for several government agencies is set to lapse on March 8.
The 1,050-page appropriations package combines six bills drafted by the House and Senate — including funding for the military, veterans affairs, agriculture, commerce, energy and water, transportation, and housing. Initial funding was due to expire on March 1, but leaders agreed on Wednesday to extend these deadlines by a week.
The funding agreement falls well short of what many conservative lawmakers on Capitol Hill expected. The legislation does not prohibit the Department of Justice (DOJ) from using taxpayer funds to prosecute a presidential candidate — a top priority for many Congressional Republicans. Additionally, it allows for continued funding of China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and other labs controlled by governments hostile to the United States. The appropriations package doesn’t prohibit taxpayer funding of mail-order chemical abortion drugs, nor does it defund President Joe Biden’s DEI executive orders or federal funding for the promotion of Critical Race Theory.
“It’s pathetic,” a senior House Republican aide told The National Pulse, adding: “Weak, low energy, apologetic failure.”
“The truth is that the FBI cut is largely a result of killing one big earmark for Alabama now that Senator Shelby is gone; plus, there is nothing meaningful on border security at all,” the aide said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, however, declared the appropriations package a victory for conservatives, noting House Republicans were able to secure a handful of the policy priorities in the negotiations.
“House Republicans secured key conservative policy victories, rejected left-wing proposals, and imposed sharp cuts to agencies and programs critical to President Biden’s agenda,” Johnson said in a statement on X (formerly Twitter).
He continued: “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.”
The appropriations package contains modest cuts to FBI and ATF funding — seven percent and six percent, respectively. It also includes a 10 percent cut to funding for the Environment Protection Agency. Additionally, the funding agreement nearly zeroed out the FBI’s construction budget. The package also addresses — to a degree — partisan lawfare by Biden’s DOJ. It bars the DOJ from investigating parents who exercise their free speech rights at local school board meetings and bars the investigation of churches for their religious beliefs.
Democrat leaders on Capitol Hill praised the package, cheering its continued full funding for programs including special food assistance for women, infants, and children, rent assistance, and infrastructure employee pay. House leaders have indicated they expect to take the legislation to the floor for a vote this coming weekend, just ahead of the March 8 funding deadline.
show less
