Feng Yaren, a special correspondent of this newspaper in the United States, and Li Meng, a reporter of this newspaper.
On the 7th local time, Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States Congress and a Republican, said that the leaders of the two parties in Congress would have a total of about 1A $6 trillion spending deal was agreed to avoid a partial "shutdown" of the federal ** later this month. For now, U.S. federal agencies have been sustained by funding from the previous two budget extensions.
Both parties in Congress believe that the agreement is an important step forward, but CNN and other U.S. media said that while the bipartisan agreement will reduce the likelihood of a shutdown, Congress still faces challenges before the January 19 and February 2 dates when the two institutions run out of funds.
According to the US media 7**, Johnson said in a letter to members of Congress that the above agreement sets out a spending plan for fiscal year 2024 (October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024), of which $886 billion is spent on defense spending, which has been signed into law by Biden last month through the defense spending bill. However, congressional leaders from both parties have mixed accounts of the cap on nondefense spending in the deal, with Johnson calling the total $704 billion and Senate Democrats calling it $773 billion. The difference between the two is nearly $69 billion. Wall Street** argues that this discrepancy, in part, reflects bipartisan interpretations of some of the key elements of the agreement, which builds on last year's Fiscal Responsibility Act, which raised the debt ceiling and capped federal spending.
Biden issued a statement after the bipartisan agreement reached on the 7th, saying that the agreement "provides a way to fund ** without drastically cutting funding", bringing the United States closer to "preventing unnecessary ** closures and protecting important national priorities." He called on congressional Republicans to stop threatening to put ** into a "shutdown" and fulfill their basic responsibilities. Biden also urged congressional Republicans to approve special appropriations requests, including aid to Israel and Ukraine, as soon as possible.
House Minority Leader Jeffries and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a joint statement that the agreement "clears the way for Congress to act in the coming weeks to maintain important funding priorities for the American people and avoid a shutdown," according to the New York Times. They also said nondefense discretionary funding would "protect" key domestic priorities such as veterans' welfare, health care and nutrition assistance from cuts sought by some Republicans. Johnson said the deal was the best spending deal Republican had reached in years, but he acknowledged that the level of spending agreed on "will not be satisfactory to everyone" and that spending cuts will not be as expected by some lawmakers. Therefore, the possibility of a federal ** "shutdown" remains.
According to the BBC, the U.S. usually shuts down when the two houses of Congress can't agree on about 30 percent of federal spending that must be approved before the start of each fiscal year. In order to avoid ** falling into a "shutdown", in November 2023, the U.S. Congress passed a temporary appropriations bill to provide short-term funding for ** institutions and projects, but some funds will only be maintained until January 19, 2024, and some funds will be maintained until February 2. The Departments of Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs will reportedly run out of funds for agency operations on January 19. The Departments of Commerce, Defense, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Labor will run out of funds on Feb. 2.
On the 8th local time, members of the U.S. Congress who had returned to Washington after their vacation returned to Washington to solve the problem of facing a shutdown. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives and the Democratic-controlled Senate will agree on how to distribute the funds, CNN said. The House of Representatives has repeatedly tried to pass spending bills in recent months, but has been blocked by right-wing Republicans in recent weeks. The House of Representatives Republican far-right group "Freedom Caucus" said on the 7th that the agreement reached by the leaders of the Senate and House of Representatives was a "complete failure". The panelists have been insisting that spending levels should be drastically reduced.
CNN mentioned that Republican conservatives may use this appropriations bill to introduce stricter immigration and border security requirements. Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" said that the agreement finalized on the 7th lacks a plan to block the attached provisions of conservative policies, so the two parties may still reach an impasse in negotiations in the future in order to cancel the funding and other requirements for the Trump investigation. ▲