The House approved a spending package that increased funding for swaths of the federal government, helping the US stave off the threat of a shutdown and sending the bill to the Senate after a Democratic clash.
On Capitol Hill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi had to deal with a rebellion from within her own caucus over using pastStimulus aid to cover additional Pandemic spending.
The deal to increase both domestic and military spending was struck by Republicans and Democrats. $730 billion in non-defense funding was contained in the legislation. The measure would keep the government open through the end of the current fiscal year.
One of the largest spending bills in history was the 2,741 page bill. It was released in the early hours of Wednesday morning after months of negotiations and last-minute haggling. The Senate was given more time to process the bill after the four-day funding patch was approved.
Many rank-and-file Democrats squared off with Pelosi after learning that the bill clawed back money from states to offset some of the cost of new coronaviruses aid, mainly vaccines. The revolt forced her to scrap the funding and push a separate measure at a later date that is all but doomed in the Senate.
Pelosi acknowledged that Democrats did not get everything they wanted. The Biden administration initially sought $22.5 billion in more funding, but it was dropped in Pelosi's last-ditch efforts to save the rest of the package.
We are having a lively negotiation. It has to be bipartisan, according to Pelosi. You need 60 votes in the Senate.
The legislation set aside $13.6 billion in emergency humanitarian and military aid for Ukraine, a top White House and Congressional priority. As the Russian military campaign intensified in recent days, the amount crept up with many lawmakers in both parties eager to provide financial and military help to Ukraine.
The State Department would get $4 billion of that money to use for migrant aid, as well as $6.5 billion of it being set aside for the defense of Ukraine.
The bill contained an extra $12 billion for the IRS ahead of the tax season, which experts say will further strain the agency. The money was used to help the IRS sort through a huge amount of paper returns. Democrats said it was the largest federal funding in two decades.
Republicans and Democrats seemed satisfied with the package. Democrats pushed for more domestic spending while Republicans pushed for more Pentagon spending.
During this time of great uncertainty and change, we are tackling some of our nation's biggest challenges, including making health care more affordable.
McConnell said in a statement that Republicans secured more defense spending than the Biden administration wanted, along with renewing the ban on federal funding for abortion.
The Kentucky Republican said that the compromise is not the bill that Republicans would have written on their own.
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