×

House approves final spending bills

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House passed this year’s final batch of spending bills on Thursday as lawmakers, still smarting from last fall’s record 43-day shutdown, worked to avoid another funding lapse for a broad swath of the federal government.

The four bills total about $1.2 trillion in spending and now move to the Senate, with final passage needed next week before a Jan. 30 deadline to avoid a partial government shutdown.

Three of the bills had broad, bipartisan support. They funded Defense and various other departments, including Education, Transportation and Health and Human Services. A fourth bill funding the Department of Homeland Security was hotly disputed as Democrats voiced concerns that it failed to restrain President Donald Trump’s mass deportation efforts.

Republicans were able to overcome the Democratic objections and muscle the Homeland Security bill to passage in a 220-207 vote. The broader package, which funds a 3.8% pay raise for the military, passed in a 341-88 vote.

Before the votes, House Democratic leaders announced their opposition to the Homeland Security bill as the party’s rank-and-file demanded a more forceful stand in response to the Republican president’s immigration crackdown. Trump’s efforts have recently centered in the Minneapolis area, where more than 2,000 officers are stationed and where a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Renee Good, a mother of three.

In a joint statement, the Democratic leaders said Trump promised the American people that his deportation policy would focus on violent felons in the country illegally, but instead, ICE has targeted American citizens and law-abiding immigrant families.

“Taxpayer dollars are being misused to brutalize U.S. citizens, including the tragic killing of Renee Nicole Good. This extremism must end,” said the statement from Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar.

Democrats had limited options

Democrats had few good options to express their opposition to Homeland Security funding.

Lawmakers, when confronting a funding impasse, generally turn to continuing resolutions to temporarily fund agencies at their current levels. But doing so in this case would simply cede more Homeland Security spending decisions to Trump, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee.

Also, there was concern that a failure to fund Homeland Security would hurt disaster assistance programs and agencies such as the Transportation Security Administration, while ICE and Customs and Border Protection would simply carry on. They could use funding from Trump’s big tax cut and immigration bill to continue their operations. ICE, which typically receives about $10 billion a year, was provided $30 billion for operations and $45 billion for detention facilities through Republicans’ “one big beautiful bill.”

This year’s Homeland Security bill holds the annual spending that Congress provides ICE roughly flat from the prior year. It also restricts the ability of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to unilaterally shift funding and allocate federal dollars as she sees fit. The bill also allocates $20 million for the purchase and operations of body cameras for ICE and CBP officers interacting with the public during immigration enforcement operations. And it will require Homeland Security to provide monthly updates on how it plans to spend money from Trump’s bill.

Starting at $3.92/week.

Subscribe Today