Congressional leaders unveiled a massive government-wide $1.7 trillion spending package early Tuesday that includes another large round of aid to Ukraine, a nearly 10% boost in defense spending and roughly $40 billion to assist communities across the country recovering from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
The huge spending bill, which runs for 4,155 pages, includes about $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding and would last through the end of the fiscal year in September.
The eye-popping spending bill is being touted as bipartisan… but many conservative House Republicans aren’t happy about it.
House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy criticized the bill for extending funding all the way through September, despite being written by two senators retiring in January.
One Twitter user echoed this sentiment, accusing the Senate of operating on a “contrived, manipulative timeline.”
13 House Republicans went a step further. They threatened to whip votes against the legislative priorities of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
In an open letter, they slammed “the willingness of Senate Republicans to abandon for now the one leverage point we have — the power of the purse — to stop Biden.”
“If the omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill — including the Republican leader. We will oppose any rule, any consent request, suspension voice vote, or roll call vote of any such Senate bill, and will otherwise do everything in our power to thwart even the smallest legislative and policy efforts of those senators,” the letter says.
“Kill this terrible bill or there is no point in pretending we are a united political party, and we must prepare for a new political reality.”
These 13 Republicans also encouraged Senate Republicans to filibuster the bill. However, the Senate exempts the budget bills from the normal rules of the filibuster.
A particularly clear commitment came from Texas Rep. Chip Roy, a member of the Freedom Caucus and a former member of the House Budget Committee.
Take a look —
13 @HouseGOP to @SenateGOP: “…we are obliged to inform you that if any omnibus passes in the remaining days of this Congress, we will oppose and whip opposition to any legislative priority of those senators who vote for this bill – including the… leader.”#StandUpForAmerica pic.twitter.com/AVAHmESbKF
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) December 20, 2022
Lawmakers worked to stuff in as many spending priorities as they could into the sprawling package, likely the last major bill of the current Congress. They are racing to complete passage before a midnight Friday deadline or face the prospect of a partial government shutdown going into the Christmas holiday.
The lawmakers leading the negotiations released the details of the bill shortly before 2 a.m. Tuesday.
The spending package includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion, according to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. It would be the biggest American infusion of assistance yet to Ukraine, above even President Joe Biden’s $37 billion emergency request, and ensure that funding flows to the war effort for months to come.
The U.S. has provided about $68 billion to Ukraine in previous rounds of military, economic, and humanitarian assistance.
“The bitterness of winter has descended on Eastern Europe, and if our friends in Ukraine hope to triumph Russia, America must stand firmly on the side of our democratic friends abroad,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
The legislation also includes historic revisions to federal election law. The bipartisan overhaul of the Electoral Count Act is a direct response to confusion over the vice president’s role in certifying an election.
“We are now one step closer to protecting our democracy and preventing another January 6th,” said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell has warned that if the fiscal year 2023 spending measure fails to gain bipartisan support this week, he would seek another short-term patch into next year, guaranteeing that the new Republican majority in the House would get to shape the package.
Leahy argued against that approach in releasing the bill saying, “the choice is clear. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward.”
“We’ve transferred huge sums of money away from Democrats’ spending wish list toward our national defense and armed forces, but without allowing the overall cost of the package to go higher,” McConnell said.
Shalanda Young, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said neither side got everything it wanted in the deal. But she praised the measure as “good for our economy, our competitiveness, and our country, and I urge Congress to send it to the President’s desk without delay.”
The spending on non-defense programs will increase by about 6%. That number includes a 22% increase for VA medical care to help pay for an expansion of health care services and benefits to veterans exposed to toxic burn pits during their service. Some environmental advocacy groups expressed frustration with the funding increases for agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Park Service, which they said don’t keep up with inflation.
McConnell claimed the GOP’s negotiations were successful in the end. He framed the longer-term spending bill as a victory for the GOP, even as many will undoubtedly vote against it. He said Republicans were successful in increasing defense spending far beyond Biden’s request while scaling back some of the increase Biden wanted for domestic spending.
The bill’s unveiling was delayed by haggling over language related to the location of the FBI’s future headquarters. Maryland lawmakers have been competing with their counterparts from Virginia. They both want the new headquarters.
A Senate Democratic aide familiar with the negotiations said Schumer worked to incorporate language in the spending bill ensuring the General Service Administration conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with lawmakers representing the Maryland and Virginia sites to get their perspectives.
Lawmakers are nearing completion of the 2023 spending package nearly three months late. It was supposed to be finished by last Oct. 1, when the government’s fiscal year began.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.