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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPelosi rushes to salvage $1.5 trillion spending package after tense feud over pandemic aid
Source: Washington Post
Pelosi rushes to salvage $1.5 trillion spending package after tense feud over pandemic aid
They must pass a new spending bill by Friday to avoid a government shutdown, and the package is supposed to include $14 billion in Ukraine assistance.
By Tony Romm and Marianna Sotomayor
Today at 8:34 a.m. EST|Updated today at 4:19 p.m. EST
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) scrambled to salvage a bipartisan, roughly $1.5 trillion spending package on Wednesday, after a Democratic-led revolt forced lawmakers to strip from their measure a series of new investments to combat the coronavirus.
The day began on an upbeat note, as congressional leaders announced a long-awaited deal that provisioned massive funding increases for key federal health, science, education and defense programs. The sweeping compromise opened the door for lawmakers to avert a looming government shutdown, set to happen at the end of the week, while allowing for the swift adoption of about $14 billion in new humanitarian, military and economic assistance for Ukraine.
But the House soon found itself wracked by the same political divisions that have plagued it for the past year. This time, the fight centered around an attempt to couple the government funding deal with roughly $15 billion in new coronavirus-related aid, which the Biden administration had sought initially in far greater sums to prepare for the possibility of a worsening pandemic.
Republicans had demanded that the money be financed in full, resulting in a bipartisan deal that sourced the coronavirus funds from an existing pot set aside for state governments in the last stimulus law. That ultimately upset a wide array of Democrats, however, since it threatened to revoke aid that their local governors and legislators had counted on. Some lawmakers even charged they were blindsided by the concessions made by their own partys top brass.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/03/09/congress-funding-shutdown-ukraine/
Eugene
(61,592 posts)Source: New York Times
LIVE Updated March 9, 2022, 5:29 p.m. ET 5 minutes ago
Covid Live Updates: Democrats Scrap $15.6 Billion Package Meant to Help Fund New Biden Strategy
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Democrats scrap a $15.6 billion emergency Covid response package meant to help fund a new Biden strategy.
Democratic leaders on Wednesday abruptly abandoned efforts to win approval of $15.6 billion in emergency pandemic response aid to fund the Biden administrations new coronavirus strategy, announcing they would drop the package from a sprawling, $1.5 trillion spending bill amid disputes about how to cover the cost.
With Republicans refusing to devote any new money toward federal efforts to address the continuing toll of the crisis, top Democrats had agreed to take the funding from existing programs, including $7 billion set aside under last years $1.9 trillion coronavirus aid law to help state governments.
But as rank-and-file lawmakers began to comb through the package Wednesday morning, only hours before it was slated for a vote, some Democrats objected to that proposal, particularly the idea of clawing back assistance that states have been counting on.
Instead, Democrats opted to drop the emergency aid altogether, leaving the fate of President Bidens new pandemic response plan uncertain. With funding for the entire federal government set to lapse on Friday without congressional action, Democrats had little time to try to negotiate an alternative.
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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/live/2022/03/09/world/covid-19-mandates-cases-vaccine#the-house-is-working-to-pass-a-sprawling-spending-bill-with-15-6-billion-in-emergency-covid-response-money
ColinC
(8,227 posts)Roughly the same amount for their own people. Don't get me wrong, Ukraine is important and I do think they should have been separate packages, but primarily because of how far up their own ass the GOP is on any domestic issues.
Also I am unclear if they can send the 14 bn dollar package without passing a budget keeping the government open.
KPN
(15,585 posts)This is what is called bipartisan: the GQP getting buy in to their well go along with it if we dont have to pay for it? And then we decide oh, well, we can just eat our young?
Oy!