U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., left, and U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., look on during a menorah lighting ceremony during a Hanukkah reception at the U.S. Capitol Building on Dec. 17, 2024, in Washington, D.C. Photo by Anna Moneymaker | Getty Images
WASHINGTON — U.S. House Republicans released a spending package Thursday that would keep the government funded through mid-March while boosting disaster aid by about $100 billion.
The legislation would suspend the nation’s debt limit for an additional two years through January 2027 and give Congress until September to finish the much overdue farm bill.
The House is expected to vote on the package Thursday evening, though it wasn’t immediately clear it could pass given that Democrats were expected to vote against the measure en masse.
While Republicans have a narrow majority in the House, Democrats control the Senate and the White House.
President-elect Donald Trump cheered the new version of the stopgap spending bill after rejecting the first version released just two days ago.
“Speaker Mike Johnson and the House have come to a very good Deal for the American People,” Trump wrote on social media. “The newly agreed to American Relief Act of 2024 will keep the Government open, fund our Great Farmers and others, and provide relief for those severely impacted by the devastating hurricanes.”
“A VERY important piece, VITAL to the America First Agenda, was added as well – The date of the very unnecessary Debt Ceiling will be pushed out two years, to January 30, 2027,” Trump added. “Now we can Make America Great Again, very quickly, which is what the People gave us a mandate to accomplish.”
Two days of tension
The release of the second stopgap bill came after a dramatic 48 hours that began with the Tuesday night release of a different stopgap spending package before Trump’s ally Elon Musk called on GOP lawmakers to reject the bill their leadership team on Capitol Hill had negotiated over weeks.
Trump then told Republicans to address the debt limit in the package or get rid of it entirely, throwing another complex issue into the mix at the last minute.
The core elements of the stopgap spending package House Republicans released Thursday afternoon were similar to the Tuesday night package, though it dropped dozens of measures, including a provision allowing the nationwide sale of 15% ethanol blended gasoline year round.
The new package, same as the old package, doesn’t include a long-standing provision that prevents members of Congress from receiving a cost of living adjustment. Unless that’s changed, lawmakers would receive a 3.8% raise next year increasing their annual salary from $174,000 to $180,600.
The new 116-page stopgap spending bill was considerably shorter than the 1,547-page version released Tuesday.
Several new deadlines
The spending package would give Congress until March 14 to complete work on the dozen annual government funding bills that were supposed to become law by the start of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.
It would give the House and Senate until Sept. 30, 2025, to reach agreement on the five-year farm bill, which lawmakers were supposed to negotiate a new version of more than a year ago.
The legislation would suspend the debt limit through Jan. 30, 2027.
The bill includes tens of billions in emergency spending to help communities throughout the country recover from various natural disasters, including wildfires, tornadoes and hurricanes.
A summary of the bill, released by House Democrats on Tuesday, showed the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Department of Agriculture would receive the bulk of the natural disaster recovery funding. House Republicans didn’t appear to have altered any of the original funding levels for disaster aid in the updated Thursday version.
The USDA would get $33.5 billion in funding, with $21 billion of that designated for disaster assistance and another $10 billion for economic assistance to farmers and producers.
Other agriculture assistance funding would go toward the Agriculture Research Service, Emergency Watershed Protection Program, Emergency Forest Restoration Program and Rural Development Disaster Assistance Fund, among several others.
The Department of Homeland Security would receive $30.8 billion in funding, with $29 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund.
An additional $1.5 billion would go to the Hermit’s Peak and Calf Canyon Fire fund “to continue efforts to support families who suffered damages due to the April 2022 wildfire,” according to the summary.
The wildfire was the largest in New Mexico’s history and caused about $5.14 billion in damages, according to a report released this week.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Community Development Block Grant program for disaster recovery would receive $12 billion in additional funding.
Another $8 billion would go to the Transportation Department to “reimburse states and territories for damage from natural disasters to roads and bridges in the National Highway System, including 100 percent of costs associated with rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore,” according to Democrats’ summary.
The Forest Service would get $6.4 billion for ongoing recovery efforts from natural disasters that took place in 2022, 2023 and this year. The National Park Service would receive $2.3 billion as part of the Department of the Interior’s $3 billion total.
The Defense Department would get $3.4 billion to repair damages related to natural disasters. The Army Corps of Engineers would receive $1.5 billion for repairs and to increase resiliency.
The Small Business Administration would receive $2.25 billion for disaster loans.
Filibuster threat if no disaster aid
Shortly before House GOP leaders announced their second stopgap package, North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham committed to holding a talking filibuster to delay passage of any stopgap funding measures if that bill doesn’t include substantial disaster aid.
The two, along with North Carolina Sen. Ted Budd, all of whom are Republicans, held a press conference Thursday afternoon to urge GOP leaders in the House to keep the roughly $100 billion in emergency disaster aid in any short-term spending package.
They also rejected calls from some members of their own party to find ways to pay for the new emergency spending, saying that’s not how disaster aid packages have traditionally been handled.
“When you’re in the middle of a crisis, I don’t think anybody’s going to want to hear somebody come to the floor and talk about the fiscal responsibility of giving these people a home again, or giving them an opportunity to open up a business again and employ people,” Tillis said. “So, no I don’t think $10 billion or $20 billion, and ‘I promise we’ll do something more in March’ is an acceptable solution. We know what the need is today. It was negotiated in a package and it needs to be in a package to get my support to get out of here.”
Graham sought to explain the realities of divided government and pointed out that even when Republicans control the House and Senate next year, they’ll still need Democratic support on spending bills.
“We need 60 votes to get it done in the Senate,” Graham said, referring to the chamber’s legislative filibuster, which requires at least 60 lawmakers vote to advance bills toward final passage.
“Mike Johnson is going to have to pick up a handful, at least, of Democrats, because there’s some Republicans who will never vote for anything,” Graham added.
Tillis was unable to answer a question about whether a partial government shutdown beginning Saturday at 12:01 a.m. would affect the federal government’s ongoing natural disaster response in his home state.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Agriculture, Department of Transportation and numerous federal departments would be required to follow their shutdown guidance if Congress doesn’t fund the government on time.
Those departments and agencies divide up their staffs into excepted employees, whose jobs address the protection of life or property, and non-excepted employees, who don’t.
Neither category of federal employee gets paid until after the shutdown ends.
American Federation of Government Employees National President Everett Kelley released a written statement Thursday that a shutdown would harm federal workers who “inspect our food, protect our borders, ensure safe travel during the holidays, and provide relief to disaster victims.”
“Over 642,000 of them are veterans of our armed services,” Kelley wrote. “Allowing them to go without a paycheck over the holidays is unacceptable.”