by Nicholas Ballasy
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s spending deal doesn’t include President Biden’s $106 billion request for a supplemental foreign aid package, Just the News has learned. Congress faces two appropriations deadlines of Jan. 19 and Feb. 2 before the federal government runs out of money.
The deal sets a top line for domestic and military spending through September 2024 at $1.59 trillion. The total reflects the parameters of the previously passed Financial Responsibility Act of 2023, which passed after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a spending agreement with President Biden that raised the nation’s debt ceiling.
According to Johnson, the deal would result in $10 billion in cuts to Internal Revenue Service funding for 2024 and $6.1 billion cut from the Biden administration’s “continued COVID-era slush funds.”
Conservative Republicans argue that the Johnson and Schumer agreement does not do enough to reduce deficit spending as the national debt now approaches $35 trillion. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said on Tuesday that Congress would likely need to pass a temporary stop-gap continuing resolution (CR) to keep the government funded while spending negotiations continue.
Johnson previously committed to not passing any more CRs, putting him in a tough spot, given conservative opposition to passing another temporary CR.
“They did a series of side deals, which we have not even been told what they are, we’re led to believe that they’re tens and tens of billions of dollars. But when we get to the bottom of it, the actual spending level in this is actually about $100 billion more than they said say in their press release,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., a member of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees, told Just the News on Tuesday.
“On top of that, which adds to the freakout about this whole thing is this: They’ve not bothered to include any of the supplemental package to fund Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, other catastrophes and disaster funding. And that’s going to be another $110 billion and the bottom line is, you’re going to increase your structural deficit by a net of at least $75 billion over where they say,” Biggs also said.
Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said he opposes the Johnson and Schumer spending deal. “I don’t think the American taxpayer saves anything by this deal. In fact, it looks like it’s $70 billion dollars more than what the Financial Responsibility Act, which was signed into law last year, allows. And that’s unacceptable. You can’t be going down that path,” Clyde said on the “Just the News, No Noise” TV program on Tuesday.
“We are $34 trillion in debt. We’ve just crossed that landmark and so, as a result, yeah, how can we spend money that we don’t have? This doesn’t work for the American people. And honestly, I don’t see much different from this than what we saw last year under Kevin McCarthy’s leadership so we’ve got a problem,” Clyde said.
In October of 2023, Biden proposed a $106 billion supplemental foreign aid package for Ukraine, Israel, Palestinian refugees and U.S. border-related efforts that congressional negotiators are still debating in the hopes of reaching an agreement.
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget confirmed that the Johnson and Schumer spending deal top line amount does not include any supplemental foreign aid for Israel, Ukraine or Palestinian refugees.
The House Appropriations Committee was not available for comment before press time.
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Nicholas Ballasy has been breaking news for more than a decade in the nation’s capital and questioning political leaders about the most pressing issues facing the nation.
Photo “Mike Johnson” by Mike Johnson. Photo “Chuck Schumer” by Chuck Schumer.
