Congressional leaders have unveiled plans to avoid a partial government shutdown before Friday’s federal funding deadline.
House Republicans released a 1,547-page document on a short-term extension of government funding levels for fiscal year 2024 (FY) to give lawmakers more time to agree on funding for the remainder of fiscal year 2025.
This is the second such extension, known as a continuing resolution (CR), since fiscal year 2024 ended on September 30.
The bill extends government funding levels for fiscal year 2024 through March 14 and provides more than $100 billion in funding for disaster relief in the wake of storms Helen and Milton that hit the southeastern United States several months ago. Offers are also included. It also includes $10 billion in economic support for farmers.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced an agreement to avoid a partial government shutdown. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images/Eric Lee/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The bill includes health care provisions aimed at reducing the influence of pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and legislation aimed at revitalizing Washington, D.C.’s RFK Stadium and the surrounding area.
The bill would also give way to the Foreign Investment Act, which would clamp down on the flow of U.S. dollars that benefit Chinese military and tech companies overseas.
Recent drone activity on the East Coast has alarmed civilians and lawmakers alike, prompting negotiators to include a reauthorization and extension of the government’s unmanned aircraft systems program.
To offset some of that funding, House leadership staffers said the bill would allow the Treasury Department to recoup some of the money the federal government spent on rebuilding the Baltimore Key Bridge. .
To avoid a partial government shutdown, it must pass the Republican-controlled House and Democratic-controlled Senate by Friday and reach President Biden’s desk by midnight that day.
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That includes more than $100 billion in disaster relief (Fox News Digital’s Adam Eugene Willis)
Last-minute negotiations forced the bill’s announcement, scheduled for Sunday, to be postponed to Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, Republican hardliners are accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) of piling unrelated policy riders on what they expected to be a “clean” CR.
“We talked to speakers until this weekend, and the only discussion was, ‘How long is this clean CR going to take?'” And then suddenly, over the weekend, we heard rumors But we learned that they were negotiating a health care package that included PBM,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Missouri) told FOX News Digital.
“I think it’s just terrible that they put forward thousands of pages of legislation that no one has ever read, and that no one has even seen, and then expect them to vote on it without any debate. Masu.”
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Rep. Eric Burleson (R-Missouri) was one of the conservative critics of the bill. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc, via Getty Images)
President-elect Trump’s allies had asked for a short extension through the new year to give his administration and the all-Republican Congress more control over government funding.
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But some Republicans worried that fighting the previous year’s battles risked derailing the positive agenda Republicans hope to enact in the first 100 days of the Trump administration.
“His policies will depend on a one-seat majority for some time. In the best-case scenario, he’ll get about three or four seats, so we have a margin of error,” one House Republican said. There’s not a lot of room.”
Elizabeth Elkind is a political reporter for FOX News Digital, where she leads coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines can be found on the Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow @liz_elkind on Twitter and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com.
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