Legislative leaders and the Executive Branch have come to an accord on a financial package as the deadline to prevent a shutdown of the government approaches.
Congressional leaders announced on Tuesday that they have reached a compromise with the White House on the budget for the Department of Homeland Security. This agreement marks the conclusion of ongoing negotiations for a larger funding package as the deadline for a government shutdown draws closer.
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Tuesday morning that an agreement has been made for DHS appropriations. This will enable the completion of the FY24 appropriations process. The House and Senate committees have started drafting the bill text to make it ready for release and deliberation by the full House and Senate at the earliest opportunity.
According to sources familiar with the negotiations, on Monday night, the agreement to fund DHS brought Congress closer to resolving the government’s funding issue. This came after months of disagreements and threats of a shutdown.
Earlier this month, the government granted funding that only covers a fraction of its expenses.
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In the previous month, legislators reached a consensus on a plan to finance the government after constantly prolonging funding deadlines through interim measures. They established two deadlines for this purpose. While the first set of spending bills were passed with little difficulty, the current deadline’s goal was to allow more time for lawmakers to negotiate on the bigger package, which covers topics that have traditionally been contentious.
Negotiating the financing for the Department of Homeland Security posed a particular challenge for legislators during this period, gaining added importance due to the ongoing debate over how to handle national security at the Congressional level.
Despite reaching an agreement, it may be challenging to pass the legislation through Congress within the designated timeframe. It is anticipated that House lawmakers will have 72 hours to review the package before a vote takes place later in the week. If this timeline is not adhered to, there could be strong backlash from some members of Johnson’s conference for not fulfilling his promise. This could result in the missed deadline passing before the Senate can approve the measure, potentially leading to a government shutdown on Saturday morning. Therefore, there is a possibility of implementing a temporary solution to keep the government funded this week.
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Nikole Killion provided coverage and authored the article.
Kaia Hubbard
Source: cbsnews.com