House set to vote Friday on spending package despite conservative furor: Live coverage
BY THE HILL STAFF – 03/21/24 3:27 PM ET
House set to vote Friday on spending package despite conservative furor: Live coverage
BY THE HILL STAFF – 03/21/24 3:27 PM ET
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Congressional leaders unveiled their $1.2 trillion, 1,012-page government funding package in the early hours of Thursday.
Now, they’re racing to try to pass the six-bill measure — which covers the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and State; the IRS; and general government and foreign operations — by a Friday night shutdown deadline.
Many rank-and-file lawmakers got their first look at the legislative text Thursday morning, but both sides are already claiming wins.
Read more on the spending package and its timing here:
- What made the cut in Congress’s $1.2T spending bill?
- Congress faces crunch time on government funding
And follow along with live updates below.
1 of 2NextLast06:20 PMMARCH 21, 2024
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Good slams spending bill: ‘I can vote against it in 72 minutes’
House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-Va.) railed against the funding package, pointing to the “terrible” policy and the limited time to review the legislation.
“It’s a terrible bill on policy. It doesn’t change the Pelosi-Schumer policies that are still in place from the 117th Congress. It largely leaves those intact. It increases spending by some $60 billion over the omnibus that we inherited from the 117th Congress,” he said.
Good said that, with only one day to read the funding package, “sadly, most members don’t care what’s in it, are willing to vote for it without having read or digested or analyzed it, irrespective of what’s in there. And they own that because they’re voting for it.”
“I don’t need 72 hours to vote against it,” Good added. “I can vote against it in 72 minutes.”
— Sarah Fortinsky06:19 PMMARCH 21, 2024
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Jeffries expects ‘substantial majority’ of Dems will back bill
House Majority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday he expects most Democrats to support the funding package when it comes to the House floor on Friday and noted most GOP policy riders were not included in the package.
Asked at a press conference how many Democrats he expected to vote for the bill — and whether it could be over 200 — Jeffries replied, “A substantial majority.”
Jeffries pushed back on a question about the GOP policy riders in the funding package.
“As far as I could tell, the overwhelming majority of right-wing policy riders have been rejected and are not part of the spending agreement, including in critical areas,” Jeffries said,
He pointed to the lack of provisions in the package that relate to reproductive rights, LGBTQ issues, and climate change policies.
“Every single one of the policy right wing changes sought by extreme MAGA Republicans in those critical areas are gone. Nowhere to be found,” he said. “And that’s a victory for the American people.”
— Sarah Fortinsky06:17 PMMARCH 21, 2024
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Casar says flag provision in spending bill ‘laughable’
Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said the provision in the spending bill only allowing the U.S. and other official flags to be flown at U.S. embassies and other State Department facilities is “laughable” to both parties’ voters.
“It shows just how low the Republican Party has gotten, they’ve threatened to shut down government services and we’re trying to figure out which flags can be floated in front of which buildings or not,” Casar said on Thursday.
“I think it’s laughable not just to Democratic voters but to Republican voters,” he said.
