House set to vote Friday on spending package despite conservative furor: Live coverage

House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) railed against the funding package, pointing to the “terrible” policy and the limited time to review the legislation.

“It’s a terrible bill on policy. It doesn’t change the Pelosi-Schumer policies that are still in place from the 117th Congress. It largely leaves those intact. It increases spending by some $60 billion over the omnibus that we inherited from the 117th Congress,” he said.

Good said that, with only one day to read the funding package, “sadly, most members don’t care what’s in it, are willing to vote for it without having read or digested or analyzed it, irrespective of what’s in there. And they own that because they’re voting for it.”

“I don’t need 72 hours to vote against it,” Good added. “I can vote against it in 72 minutes.”

— Sarah Fortinsky

House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday he expects most Democrats to support the funding package when it comes to the House floor on Friday and noted most GOP policy riders were not included in the package.

Asked at a press conference how many Democrats he expected to vote for the bill — and whether it could be over 200 — Jeffries replied, “A substantial majority.”

Jeffries pushed back on a question about the GOP policy riders in the funding package.

“As far as I could tell, the overwhelming majority of right-wing policy riders have been rejected and are not part of the spending agreement, including in critical areas,” Jeffries said,

He pointed to the lack of provisions in the package that relate to reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, and climate change policies.

“Every single one of the policy right wing changes sought by extreme MAGA Republicans in those critical areas are gone. Nowhere to be found,” he said. “And that’s a victory for the American people.”

— Sarah Fortinsky

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said the provision in the spending bill only allowing the U.S. and other official flags to be flown at U.S. embassies and other State Department facilities is “laughable” to both parties’ voters. 

“It shows just how low the Republican Party has gotten, they’ve threatened to shut down government services and we’re trying to figure out which flags can be floated in front of which buildings or not,” Casar said on Thursday. 

“I think it’s laughable not just to Democratic voters but to Republican voters,” he said.

 — Filip Timotija

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) criticized the recently released spending bill restricting funds for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

“I think it’s unconscionable, it’s unconscionable,” Ocasio-Cortez said on Thursday when asked if she has concerns over the six-bill package having a provision to bar funding for the main agency providing shelter, food and water to Palestinians in Gaza. 

“It’s also not grounded in sound facts,” she said. “We have intelligence assessments that speak to this and I find it highly political.”

— Filip Timotija

Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said she is “leaning no” on voting for the recently unveiled $1.2 trillion spending package, mentioning concerns over funding restrictions for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and uptick in defense spending.

“I’m still looking at it, but I’m leaning no,” Jayapal said Thursday.

Jayapal said she was glad Republicans hadn’t come up with all the wins they wanted.

“But for me, UNRWA prohibition is a big deal,” Jayapal said. “The defense budget is a big deal, so I’m still deciding what I’m gonna do.”

— Filip Timotija

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said he was confident the minibus legislation would pass Friday and downplayed the significance of the conservative backlash.

“I mean, on any bipartisan agreement, you have some Democrats and some Republicans that drop off,” Scalise said about the backlash from the the right flank of his party.

He also defended the bill, noting most of the funding goes to the Defense Department.

“Over 70 percent of the bill is defense, including the largest pay raise our troops have had in decades, which I think they deserve,” Scalise said, “Why would you want to vote against paying our troops more and confronting China? We really focus our defense much more on the threat that China poses. We get rid of a lot of the woke ideology that’s going on in DOD in this bill.”

Stressing the urgency of the moment, he said, “At a time when the world is on fire more than ever, we need to make sure that we’re properly funding our nation’s defense and supporting our troops.”

— Sarah Fortinsky

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who sets the floor schedule, said he expects a vote series on the minibus legislation “probably around” 11:30 a.m. Friday, following morning debate.

— Sarah Fortinsky

A standalone bill to expand and reauthorize a 30-year-old radiation compensation program that passed the Senate with a filibuster-proof majority will not be included in the text of a House appropriations bill.

The upper chamber had previously passed a standalone reauthorization of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA), adding several states to its coverage and extending the law, set to expire this summer, a further five years. The bill passed the Senate 69-30 and last week, bipartisan members of Missouri’s House delegation called on House leadership to include it in an upcoming appropriations bill. 

In a statement Thursday, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) praised Rep. Ann Wagner’s (R-Mo.) advocacy to include the measure in the must-pass government funding bill but confirmed it would not be included in the text, saying, “I understand her position and I look forward to working closely with Ann as we chart a path together for the House to move forward with evaluating and acting on a reauthorization measure.”

READ MORE HERE.

— Zack Budryk

Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) blasted the restrictions on United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) funding inserted in the recently unveiled $1.2 trillion spending package to avert a partial government shutdown. 

“That’s some bullshit,” Bowman told The Hill on Thursday when asked about the provision. 

Bowman said he still needs to “look deeper at” the funding package unveiled early Thursday morning, but later reiterated his criticism of restricting funding to UNRWA, the main agency in Gaza supplying food, water and shelter to Palestinians. 

“But that’s some bullshit if we are not funding UNRWA. UNRWA is the long-standing organization working on-the-ground in Gaza, providing humanitarian aid and we have a humanitarian crisis right now where babies and children are starving to death. It’s evil. It’s unacceptable. We gotta fund UNRWA for sure.”

— Filip Timotija

Senators are hopeful they can pass legislation to fund the remainder of fiscal 2024 on Friday night, two sources tell The Hill.

Senate leaders have been working since the last government funding deadline two weeks ago on a universe of amendments, with sources saying that members are hoping to avoid weekend work to get the minibus across the finish line.

Among the GOP amendments that could receive a vote are those proposed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and a couple others related to the border.

The House is expected to vote Friday morning, giving the upper chamber enough time — if lawmakers agree to expedite the process — to avoid coming back Saturday.

— Al Weaver

Hard-line conservatives are fuming about a bipartisan government funding deal that includes dollars for construction of a new headquarters for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. 

The bill would put $200 million toward construction, angering conservatives who have targeted the funding over the past year as they accuse the agency of political weaponization. 

“The FBI labels parents as domestic terrorists, targets pro-lifers, and wages a war against conservative Americans,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “Their punishment? $200 MILLION for a new headquarters in this ‘minibus’ Vote NO #killthebill.”

“The $1.2 trillion, 1000-page swamp-bus released in the dead of night includes $200 MILLION for a new FBI Headquarters So much for those ‘cuts’ to FBI,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) also wrote. 

The amount was included as part of the package’s proposed full-year funding for the General Services Administration, which constructs and manages federal buildings.

The news comes after Republicans previously highlighted a $654 million cut to the FBI’s operating budget in the initial batch of full-year funding bills that passed Congress earlier this month.

Republicans also pointed to what they described as a 95 percent cut to the FBI’s construction account, amounting to a $621.9 million reduction, at the time as part of an effort “to address the weaponization of the growing bureaucracy within the FBI.”

— Aris Folley

Former Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) returned to Washington on Thursday for the Ghost Army Congressional Gold Medal ceremony — a result of legislation he helped pass — and joked about the ineffectiveness of Congress.

“Some of you are saying, ‘Who is this guy? He looks kind of familiar,’” Stewart said, speaking before a large crowd at the Capitol. “I left Congress several months ago because of the health of my wife.

“And I want you to know, Mr. Speaker and others: There’s not been a single morning that I woke up and thought, ‘Man, I wish I was back here,” Stewart said, to a wave of laughter from the audience.

— Sarah Fortinsky

The flagship U.S. program to combat HIV/AIDS abroad got a one year reprieve in the spending bill, putting a temporary pause on what was an atypical partisan fight over the initiative.

The one year extension for PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, keeps funding flat through March 2025, but it also won’t impose any anti-abortion restrictions sought by conservatives. 

PEPFAR is credited with saving 25 million lives since it was launched by then-President George W. Bush in 2003, and it has typically enjoyed bipartisan support. It’s been widely regarded as one of the most successful global health programs in U.S. history. This is the first time the program has been reauthorized for less than five years. 

Bush has been lobbying to save the program, and in an opinion piece in The Washington Post last fall, he warned that the U.S. risked backpedaling on “two decades of unimaginable progress and raise further questions about the worth of America’s word.” 

But outside conservative groups and GOP lawmakers last year began targeting the program over concerns about sending money to groups that perform abortions. Even though U.S. law prohibits the use of U.S. foreign assistance, including PEPFAR funding, for abortion, Republicans held up the renewal for months, allowing several key provisions of the program to expire last fall. 

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

— Nathaniel Weixel

The 2024 Defense bill shrinks the number of service members across the military by more than 32,000 people.

The end strength, meaning the authorized or actual number of service members, will shrink from more than 1.3 million of active duty personnel in fiscal 2023 to more than 1.28 million.

The number of reserve personnel will also shrink from 770,400 to 763,600.

The U.S. has struggled to recruit more service members for years across nearly every military branch, a challenge attributed to competition from the private industry during a relatively strong economy and the ineligibility of younger Americans, who are also less inclined to enlist.

— Brad Dress

The $825 billion Defense bill for fiscal 2024 includes funding for Replicator, the new initiative at the Pentagon to field thousands of drones and systems powered by artificial intelligence.

More than $200 million in the bill will support Replicator for the first time.

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks announced Replicator last August, giving a timeline of 18-24 months to field thousands of AI systems.

The Biden administration also expects some $500 million for Replicator to be included in the fiscal 2025 Defense bill, though the request released this month does not include a specific number or budget line for the initiative.

— Brad Dress

House conservatives are railing against the funding package, slamming overall spending levels, individual components of the bills and the expected timeline between the measure’s release and the vote.

“At 2:32 am—when Americans were sleeping—the Swamp released its second half of the omnibus. 1,012 pages that spend $1.2 TRILLION of taxpayer dollars on disastrous policies. The House is still expected to vote on this monstrosity TOMORROW MORNING. Washington is beyond broken,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) wrote, “You’d never be expected to sign a 1,000 page document to buy a new car in a day. Why should Congress be expected to sign off on +1,000 pages resulting in $1.2 trillion in spending in a day?”

“The swamp’s new spending package released while you were sleeping includes $200 MILLION for a new FBI HQ. We can’t fix weaponized government if we’re funding it,” Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala.) wrote.

Conservatives had started bashing the deal even before it was officially unveiled, and their criticism picked up Thursday morning.

Still, the package will move through the House under suspension — depriving conservatives the ability to block it on a procedural measure — and is expected to pass with Democratic support.

Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.) said Thursday that Democrats secured key victories in the minibus funding bill and predicted the party would provide plenty of support to pass the bill later in the week.

“I expect that there will be significant support from my [Democratic] colleagues,” Neguse said. “I certainly hope that my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will reach the same conclusion.”

The enthusiastic backing from a top Democrat comes as no surprise. 

The minibus package was negotiated by Democratic leaders in the White House and Congress, including Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), the senior Democrat on the Appropriations Committee. And Democrats are claiming key victories, both when it comes to provisions that were included — Neguse singled out funding for child care and community projects — and certain GOP priorities that were cut out. 

“The text was just released, and so members are still reviewing it. But my understanding is that every destructive policy rider that House Republicans had sought to include was ultimately excluded,” said Neguse, who was elected Wednesday to replace Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.) as assistant leader.

“This is something that we can and should strongly support.”

Although Democrats are the minority party in the lower chamber, their support will be crucial passage, since Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is expected to bring the package to the floor under an expedited process requiring support from two-thirds of the chamber. 

— Mike Lillis

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) slammed the $1.2 trillion funding package congressional leaders unveiled in the early morning hours Thursday. 

“It’s total lack of backbone, total lack of leadership and a total failure by Republican leadership,” Roy said during a Thursday morning appearance on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” show. 

“There’s no other way to describe it,” he continued. “This bill is an abomination. I don’t even have words for any Republican that votes for this bill. I promise you I will not be going out and supporting any Republican who votes for this bill, for any position ever again. It’s absolutely unsupportable by anybody who is a self-proclaimed conservative.”

Roy, a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said the six-bill measure balloons the debt and piles up spending. He criticized the package for funding the new FBI headquarters and the World Health Organization. 

The Texas Republican later encouraged the listeners of the show to “light up” their members of Congress about supporting the spending package. 

“Everybody listening to this show, light up your congressmen and congresswomen,” Roy said. “Light them up; light up your senators.”

— Filip Timotija

Congressional leaders rolled out a sprawling $1.2 trillion legislative package to fund swaths of the government into the fall. 

The 1,012-page, six-bill funding package was released in the wee hours of Thursday, as lawmakers push to get the legislation quickly across the finish line to avert a shutdown this weekend.

CLICK HERE FOR SOME OF THE HIGHLIGHTS.

— Aris Folley

Congressional leaders have rolled out a sprawling package funding large swaths of the government for the rest of fiscal 2024 after last-minute drama over Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding threatened efforts to avert a shutdown later this week.

The package combines funding for half of the 12 annual government spending bills, and sets off a sprint for lawmakers to put a stamp on the more than a trillion dollars in spending and prevent major agencies from suffering a lapse in funds.

The plan includes measures funding DHS; the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and State; the IRS; and general government and foreign operations.

Funding for the agencies could lapse Saturday morning, leaving lawmakers with little time to get the package to President Biden’s desk. House Republicans are hopeful for a Friday vote, but Senate procedure could draw out the consideration process into the weekend. 

READ THE FULL STORY HERE.

— Aris Folley