The 1,050-page package calls for more than $450 billion in funding for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Justice, Commerce and Energy.
The so-called “minibus” package cleared the House in an 339-85 vote, with 207 Democrats and 132 Republicans throwing their support behind the measure.
The legislation now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the chamber will hold a vote this week so Congress can fund the relevant departments “with time to spare before Friday’s deadline.” That timeline, however, is up in the air.
The successful vote means the House is halfway done with the appropriations process for fiscal 2024, an undertaking that has fractured the GOP conference, thrown Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) into hot water with his right flank and required four short-term extensions to arrive at the current juncture.
The tougher spending fight, however, lays ahead.
The remaining six government funding bills — which fund thornier areas like the departments of Defense, Homeland Security and Health and Human Services — are due March 22. Top appropriators say those measures will be more difficult to get over the finish line.
“The next tranche is more challenging than the first tranche — not that either one of them are easy,” Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), who chairs the subcommittee that crafts IRS funding, told reporters Tuesday. “But there’s quite a bit at stake. Obviously, we’ve got national security that’s involved in this next group.”
Wednesday’s vote, nonetheless, marks a win for Johnson, who has sought to break what he dubbed the “omnibus fever” in Washington and move away from the sprawling, typically end-of-year spending measures that lump together all 12 appropriations bills.
House passage of the package also puts Congress one step closer to averting a partial shutdown, which the Speaker has pushed to avoid.
The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Aris Folley have more here.
