WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Ahead of a critical funding deadline, Congress seems to be making progress on a spending deal.
Leaders just announced they’ve agreed on how much the budget should cost but haven’t decided how to divvy up the money.
Congressional leaders have only agreed to a funding framework, which is a significant step, but they still need to hash out the details and actually get the bill passed with just two weeks until their first government funding deadline.
“We will have a time crunch now to avoid a shutdown,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn).
Leaders just agreed to topline spending numbers – giving $886 billion to defense and $704 billion to domestic priorities.
Now they have to decide how much of that money each federal agency gets.
“Deliberations can now begin on appropriations bills and we will be fighting for every dollar,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn).
The deal closely follows the spending limits that lawmakers agreed to last year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson say there are additional cuts in the bill, including cuts to the IRS and taking back $6 billion in unspent covid relief money.
“We have to be good stewards of precious taxpayer resources. We cannot continue to borrow money to spend it,” said Johnson.
But some House Republicans are criticizing this deal for not cutting enough, with the House Freedom Caucus saying in a post on X, formerly Twitter…”It’s even worse than we thought. This is total failure.”
President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders support the agreement saying it avoids some of the steeper funding cuts Republicans had been pushing for.
