Congressional leadership have taken a first step toward averting a partial government shutdown next week, but several issues remain.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Sunday released a topline funding proposal of $1.659 trillion for FY 2024.
The bipartisan agreement includes $886 billion for defense and $773 billion for non-defense discretionary spending - the same levels as agreed to by President Biden and then Speaker McCarthy during the debt limit negotiations last year. The proposal contains several concessions by Democrats, accelerating $10 billion in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service that Biden and McCarthy had agreed to and including $6 billion in recessions of unspent COVID-19 pandemic funds. Not surprisingly, members of conservative Freedom Caucus have already expressed opposition, saying it doesn’t reduce funding for non-defense programs.
President Biden is recognizing the compromise and urging congressional Republicans to “do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government, and fulfill their basic responsibility” to approve federal spending for key domestic and security priorities.
Although this agreement represents progress, it does not completely eliminate the possibility of at least a partial shutdown as soon as January 19th. Congressional leadership and appropriators still face a large number of decisions and tasks, including reaching an agreement on subcommittee funding levels, actual bill text and controversial policy riders included in House Republican bills.