Congress Passes $1.2 Trillion Spending Package

To avoid a partial government shutdown, the House of Representatives unveiled a comprehensive $1.2 trillion spending package on Thursday, March 21, giving Congress six months to finalize funding for government operations through September.

The package, divided into two parts, with the first installment passed by Congress two weeks earlier, includes approximately $886 billion designated for the Defense Department, representing a three percent increase from last year’s levels. Additionally, the bill allocates funds for Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Labor, and others, while the Environmental Protection Agency will experience budget reductions.

House Speaker Mike Johnson called the bill a step toward bolstering national defense and supporting military personnel because one provision include a 5.2 percent pay increase for service members and measures to streamline Pentagon operations.

While Republicans pushed for restrictions on funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency following its involvement in attacks by Hamas, and Democrats championed increased humanitarian assistance for Gazan refugees, the smoke screen hid $850 thousand for a gay senior home, $15 million to pay for Egyptian college tuitions, $400 thousand for a gay activist group to teach elementary kids about being trans, $500 thousand for a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) zoo, which is an anti-racist nature appreciation program, $400 thousand for a group that gives clothes to teens to help them hide their gender, $1.5 billion to green energy funding, and $300 to $500 million to Ukraine Secretary Assistance Initiative, an Afghan Special Immigrant Visas program, authorization to support loans to the International Monetary Fund, late-term abortions and a new FBI headquarters. It contains nothing for U.S. border security.

And now, with the Senate’s passage, the amended bill awaits President Joe Biden’s signature.