Congress unveils $1.7 trillion deal to fund government, avert shutdown

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

Democratic and Republican negotiators early Tuesday unveiled a roughly $1.7 trillion deal to fund the U.S. government through most of 2023, setting up a last-minute sprint on Capitol Hill to approve the sprawling package and avert a potential shutdown. The 4,155-page measure, known in congressional parlance as an omnibus, included funding for key elements of President Biden’s economic agenda, new boosts to defense programs and an additional $44.9 billion in emergency military and economic assistance for Ukraine.

Democrats did not achieve all of the increases to domestic spending that they initially had sought, a concession in talks with Republicans, who are set to assume control of the House in January. But the two parties’ leaders did agree to stitch onto the measure a wide array of long-simmering and stalled bills, recognizing the omnibus marks their final major legislative opening before Congress resets in the new year.

Lawmakers appended proposals to improve pandemic readiness, extend some Medicaid benefits, help Americans save for retirement, ban TikTok on government devices and change the way the country counts presidential electoral votes. The bipartisan election bill — known as the Electoral Count Act — sought to respond to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

But Democrats and Republicans could not find compromises on other outstanding fiscal and economic debates, particularly around a package of tax credits that might have aided low-income families with children while preserving tax breaks for businesses — a slew of thorny issues that now await lawmakers in a tougher political environment next year. For now, the Capitol faces a race against the clock: Lawmakers have until the end of Friday to approve the package or else federal funds are set to run out, bringing key agencies and programs to a halt.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2022/12/20/government-spending-deal-shutdown/

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And regarding the Electoral Count bill(s), the Senate one was added to the Omnibus (they didn't vote on the House one which was a little different but apparently didn't have enough GOP support in the Senate to have achieved cloture as a standalone) -

Lawmakers put Electoral Count Act, crafted as response to Jan. 6, in omnibus bill

By Amy B Wang and Liz Goodwin
 
December 19, 2022 at 7:21 p.m. EST


A bipartisan bill that would change how members of Congress could object to electoral votes has been included in the omnibus spending bill lawmakers need to approve in the coming days. The Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, sponsored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), would amend the Electoral Count Act of 1887 and reaffirm that the vice president has only a ministerial role at the joint session of Congress where electoral college votes are counted. The measure also would raise the threshold necessary for members of Congress to object to a state’s electors.

Collins said Monday that she was “delighted” the electoral count bill would be included in the longer-term government spending bill, and that it was “very significant.” The leaders of the appropriations committees unveiled the sweeping spending bill to fund all government agencies and departments early Tuesday.

The bill was driven by the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters seeking to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s win. Lawmakers have warned a similar effort could disrupt future electoral counts without changes to the process. Though the Senate has not yet voted on the bill, both Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) came out in support of the legislation in September.

“Our bipartisan bill is backed by election law experts and organizations across the ideological spectrum and a broad cross section of Senators from both parties,” Collins and Manchin said in a joint statement at the time. “We will keep working to increase support for our legislation that would correct the flaws in this archaic and ambiguous law.” Around the same time, the House passed a similar bill that aimed to stop future presidential candidates from trying to overturn election results through Congress, similarly citing the Jan. 6 insurrection.

(snip)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/19/electoral-count-reform-omnibus/

No paywall

[GreenWave]

1. I guess we are in for two solid years of no honey no money from GOP lawbreakers.

[Ray Bruns]

2. Yep. This only kicks the can down the road.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

3. Rinse, repeat, shake it up for the next time! What a way to run a nation with trillion $ budgets.

No wonder other nations are rapidly catching up, in every way.

Not to mention the unstable political environment, not good for businesses.

[Turbineguy]

4. That gives republicans a whole year to figure out how the fuck the US next.

[maxsolomon]

5. It gives the nation a whole year in which they can't.

I remember Obama's terms.

[brooklynite]

6. UPDATE: Government funding bill gives DOJ extra money for Jan. 6 prosecutions

NBC News

WASHINGTON — The $1.7 trillion government funding bill released Tuesday includes extra money for the Justice Department to prosecute Jan. 6 cases. Congress is hoping to pass it this week.

The package gives U.S. attorneys a budget of $2.63 billion for the coming fiscal year, a $212.1 million boost above current levels. One reason for the additional money is “to further support prosecutions related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and domestic terrorism cases,” according to a summary provided by the House Appropriations Committee.

As NBC News reported in October, the department said it was in critical need of additional resources for its investigation into the Capitol attack, with more than a dozen sources familiar with the probe expressing concerns about the resources available for the investigation.

The department had requested $34 million from Congress specifically to carry it the investigation. “The cases are unprecedented in scale and [it] is expected to be among the most complex investigations prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” DOJ previously told Congress, adding that the funding was “necessary for the continued prosecutions of the growing number of cases related to this breach of the U.S. Capitol that has left the Department with an immense task of finding and charging those responsible for the attacks.”