Senate Poised to Soon Pass $1.2 Trillion Funding Bill After Missing Midnight Deadline

WASHINGTON—The government has gone into a partial shutdown after the Senate failed to green-light a House-passed $1.2 trillion spending legislation by the midnight deadline.

The shutdown is on track to be a short-lived one, however.

After an hours-long standoff between Republicans and Democrats, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced just before midnight that the impasse had been resolved and voting would begin shortly.

The Senate currently is voting on a series of amendments to the House-passed package, which must be voted on before final passage.

“It’s more of a warning and a pink slip,” Ms. Greene told reporters, as she does “not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos”—as was the case in September when Mr. Johnson’s predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), was ousted from the position.

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At the time of publication, it’s unclear whether the Senate will take votes on the bill in the early morning hours of March 23, or if they’ll punt it to later in the weekend.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) said Republicans are seeking a 50-vote threshold to pass amendments, while Democrats are pushing for a 60-vote threshold.

This is in part because Democrats want to avoid making swing state moderates like Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) the deciding vote on tough issues like the border and immigration.

“These amendments that have been offered are germane, technically. So they’re at 50 [votes],” Mr. Hawley told The Epoch Times. “And the Democrats don’t want them at 50 because several of these swing state Dems would vote yes. And then they would pass and then they get attached to the bill and the House is gone.

“So they want to set them at 60. Of course, our side doesn’t want them at 60. So it’s that kind of thing.”

The bill, unveiled on Thursday, would fund the Departments of State, Defense, Treasury, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.

The Pentagon would get $825 billion—$27 billion more than in the 2023 fiscal year—including $92 million more than requested by the Biden administration to improve U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s deterrence amid the threat from China. There is $108 billion allocated for U.S. security cooperation with Taiwan and $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which consists of training, equipment, and other means to aid Ukraine.

However, direct funding for Ukraine and Taiwan is not in the spending bill as Congress is stuck trying to pass a supplemental assistance package for Taipei and Kyiv as Republicans have called for stringent border measures in exchange. The GOP blocked a Senate bill that consisted of assistance for Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific, including Taiwan, and some specific border security measures.

The annual $3.3 billion for Israel is in the bill, as has been the case for the past several years. This comes amid the latest conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.

The bill allocates $1.8 billion to the Treasury Department, minus the IRS, which would get $12.3 billion. The appropriation for the IRS would be the same as it was in the 2023 fiscal year.

The appropriations bill also prevents the IRS from transferring more funds from its accounts for enforcement.

Other Appropriations

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would get $61.8 billion, a $1.1 billion increase over the 2023 fiscal year. Customs and Border Protection would receive $400 million toward combating the influx of fentanyl, a major problem as the deadly drug crosses the southern border via cartels and other sources.

The bill allocates $2.2 billion for processing asylum seekers and related purposes.

DHS will have 24 percent more beds in detention centers for illegal immigrants and an additional 22,000 Border Patrol agents, as proposed under a tough border security bill previously passed by the GOP-controlled House that was dead in the Democrat-controlled Senate. The funding also covers 41,500 detention beds, also proposed under the previous House bill.

There will also be 12,000 additional special immigrant visas awarded to Afghan allies who helped the United States during the nearly 20-year war in Afghanistan, from which the United States and its allies hastily withdrew in mid-2021 as the Biden administration came under fire for abandoning those allies who served in numerous roles, such as interpreters.

The Department of Health and Human Services would receive $116.8 billion, a $3.9 billion decrease from the 2023 fiscal year, though the National Institutes of Health would get $48.6 billion this year, $300 million more than last year.

The Education Department would get $79.1 billion, a $500 million decrease from the 2023 fiscal year.

The State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development would get $11.8 billion, a $5.6 billion decrease from the 2023 fiscal year.

This includes $300 million for Taiwan and conditions assistance to Gaza, which Hamas controls.

No funding was allocated through March 2025 for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). UNRWA has come under fire for what critics call propagating hatred for the Jewish state in schools.

Moreover, the bill also includes $200 million for the new FBI headquarters, which will be built just outside Washington in Greenbelt, Maryland—a contentious issue for Republicans.

Not Everyone Satisfied

Both Democrats and Republicans got policy victories, though some members on both sides are expected to oppose the bill despite the expected overwhelming support it will get in both the House and Senate.

“We’re in a bad spot. And it’s a bad process, but we’re in a bad spot because previously we’ve done things we ought not to have done. And I believe we need to push back on the Senate,” Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) told The Epoch Times.

“But do we push back on this moment in history? Probably not,” he continued. “But we need to be laying the pieces to a future understanding where we have some power to tell the Senate to pound sand.”

Finally, despite Ms. Greene filing a motion to vacate, it does not appear that Mr. Johnson’s speakership is in jeopardy, whereas his predecessor, former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), was stripped of the gavel after pushing through a spending bill.

“If we vacate this speaker, we’ll end up with a Democrat speaker,” said Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who led the push to oust Mr. McCarthy.

Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), who was one of the members who voted to oust Mr. McCarthy from the speaker’s chair, said he would be against doing the same to Mr. Johnson.

Members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus did not hold back their frustration over the bill.

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good (R-Va.) railed against the bill, saying it is worse than the spending when the Democrats controlled Congress under the leadership of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“It does seem this bill again maintains the Pelosi-Schumer policies and spending levels exactly,” said Mr. Good. “It actually increases spending levels by about $60 billion that were in place from the omnibus that we all voted against a year and a half ago, but it has some new things that we want to point out here,” he said at a press conference.

Mr. Good lamented the earmarks and $200 million for the new FBI headquarters.

Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) slammed Congressional GOP leadership over the $1.2 trillion government spending bill, calling it a “swamp glossary”—a reference to Washington’s nickname, “the Swamp.”

“Frankly, our Republican leadership or basically walking swamp glossary,” the Freedom Caucus member said.

He cited what he said are excuses from his party’s leadership such as that the GOP majority in the House is thin.

Mr. Roy said that Republicans who vote for the bill, which is expected to overwhelmingly pass the House, are “risking the election.”

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) called on House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to shut down the House over the $1.2 trillion government spending bill.

He explained that Mr. Johnson could do so by removing a ceremonial ornamented staff called a mace. The mace is in place next to the speaker’s chair when the House is in session and it is a 184-year-old custom.

“Take the mace down, cut the lights off, and say we will not come back until you stop the invasion at the border,” said Mr. Norman, calling for the Democrat-controlled Senate to pass a tough border security bill that the House passed last year.

Earlier this month, Congress passed and President Biden signed a $460 billion bill to fund 30 percent of government agencies including the Justice Department and Department of Transportation.