Congressional leaders unveiled a government-wide $1.7 trillion spending package early Tuesday, December 20, 2022.
The spending package comprises another large round of aid to Ukraine, an approximately 10% boost in defense spending and roughly $40 billion to assist communities across the country recovering from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters.
The bill, which runs for 4,155 pages, includes about $772.5 billion for non-defense discretionary programs and $858 billion in defense funding and would last through the end of the fiscal year in September.
Lawmakers made efforts to include as many priorities as they could into the extensive package, likely the last major bill of the current Congress.
Congress is racing to complete passage before a midnight Friday deadline or will face the prospect of a partial government shutdown going into the Christmas holiday.
Lawmakers leading the negotiations released the details of the bill shortly before 2 a.m.
According to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Democratic Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, the spending package includes about $45 billion in emergency assistance to Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.
It would be the biggest American infusion of assistance yet to Ukraine, above even President Joe Biden’s $37 billion emergency request, and ensure that funding flows to the war effort for months to come.
The U.S. has provided about $68 billion to Ukraine in previous rounds of military, economic and humanitarian assistance.
“Finalizing the omnibus is critical, absolutely critical for supporting our friends in Ukraine,” said Senate Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer.
The legislation also includes significant revisions to federal election law that aim to prevent any future Presidents or Presidential candidates from trying to overturn an election.
Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell has warned that if the fiscal year 2023 spending measure fails to gain bipartisan support this week, he would seek another short-term patch into next year, guaranteeing that the new Republican majority in the House would get to shape the package.
Leahy argued against that approach in releasing the bill saying, “the choice is clear. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward.”
Despite the warning, McConnell framed the longer-term spending bill as a victory for the GOP, even as many will undoubtedly vote against it.
McConnell said Republicans were successful in increasing defense spending far beyond Biden’s request while scaling back some of the increase Biden wanted for domestic spending.
“The Congress is rejecting the Biden administration’s vision and doing the exact opposite.”
Mitch McConnell
Neither Side Got Everything It Wanted
Shalanda Young, Director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement that neither side got everything it wanted in the deal.
Yet, she praised the measure as “good for our economy, our competitiveness, and our country, and I urge Congress to send it to the President’s desk without delay.”
Lawmakers are nearing completion of the 2023 spending package nearly three months late. It was supposed to be finished by last October 1, 2022 when the government’s fiscal year began.
The last time Congress enacted all its spending bills on time was in 1996, when the Senate finished its work on Sept. 30, the very last day of the budget year.
Then-President Bill Clinton signed it that same day.
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