The House on Friday approved a $ 1.3 billion package of spending bills for fiscal year 2021.
The package, approved in a 217-197 vote by much of the party, included defense spending bills; work, health and human services, and education; commerce, justice and science; energy and water; financial services and general government; and transportation and housing and urban development.
The House has approved all but two expense bills, although the remaining bills are not expected to receive floor consideration.
More than half of the funds in the bill went to defense. It includes a 3 percent salary increase for troops, $ 9.3 billion for 91 F-35 fighter jets, $ 22.3 billion for nine new Navy ships, and $ 758 million to mitigate the effects of the pandemic of coronavirus in subcontractors at the defense industrial base.
The bill would also provide the Army with $ 1 million to rename assets named by Confederate figures and block funding for President Trump
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Democrats included significant spending on COVID-19 issues in the work and health bill, including $ 5 billion in emergency spending for the National Institutes of Health and $ 9 billion in emergency funding for the Centers. for Disease Control and Prevention.
The commerce, justice and science bill includes funds for NASA and the National Science Foundation and would also provide nearly $ 600 million to implement a series of police reforms in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd.
The energy and water portion increases funding for renewable energy and would ban funding for nuclear weapons testing, an idea Trump launched to restore for the first time in 28 years.
Other parts of the package funded electoral security in the amount of $ 500 million, increased spending for the IRS application, and removed restrictions on marijuana and abortion policy for the District of Columbia.
They added $ 26 billion to improve infrastructure, blocked a Trump administration rule that prohibits undocumented immigrants from accessing public housing, and masked public transportation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This package prioritizes the lives and livelihoods of the American people, and makes the heavy investments necessary to build a stronger future for each person,” said the Chair of the House Appropriations Committee. Nita Lowey
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Absent from the package for the second consecutive year were bills covering national security and the legislature.
Democrats reversed course several times on whether to bring the controversial national security bill to the ground amid disagreements among the party’s most progressive ranks. Progressives want to raise funds from agencies like Immigration and Customs.
But concern that the more progressive approach that helped move forward in the first place would put centrist Democrats in a position for reelection in a difficult situation, along with new pressure from progressive leaders, prompted Democrats to scrap the bill. earlier this week.
The legislature bill was absent due to disagreements over the payment of Congress.
Although many of the core elements of the bills were negotiated with Republicans and are expected to form the basis of a final compromise bill, the Republican Party opposed the bills on two fronts: spending and policy.
“Democrats, unfortunately, chose a deeply flawed approach to exercising this function for fiscal year 2021,” said the vice chair of the Appropriations Committee. Tom Cole
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“I remain concerned about the use of designated emergency funds as an alternative solution and a scheme to break the budget agreement between the two parties and the president,” Cole said, referring to the inclusion of nearly $ 250 billion in emergency spending in Democratic spending proposals, on which side – passed the spending deal reached last summer.
Cole was replacing the rank member of the panel, Rep. Kay Granger
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While the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to accept provisions restricting various Trump policies on abortion, immigration and other hot topics, the upper house has been bogged down in its own swamp over government funding.
Disagreements over whether to include police reform and additional COVID spending have led to stagnation in the Senate Appropriations Committee, which has not released a single spending bill by 2021.
Without a likely deal, Congress is likely to pass a provisional measure to keep the government funded and avoid a shutdown before the November elections.
The outcome of the election may influence whether spending bills progress or be scrapped until next year, when control of the House, Senate, and White House may be different.
Rebecca Kheel contributed.
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