Congress Clinches $1.2t Funding Deal For Dhs, Pentagon, Domestic Agencies

Congressional leaders released bill text Tuesday of a bipartisan compromise to fund the vast majority of the federal government ahead of the Jan. 30 shutdown deadline.

The bicameral breakthrough on funding for the Pentagon and the nation’s largest non-defense agencies is the product of private negotiations between top appropriators in the two months since Congress ended the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

House leaders plan to hold a vote later in the week on the legislation, which would boost defense funding to more than $839 billion. It would also fund the departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation and Education and Homeland Security.

After the fatal shooting by an ICE agent in Minneapolis this month, congressional Democrats have demanded that any new DHS funding come with conditions to crack down on the Trump administration's immigration enforcement tactics, even as many Democratic voters call for defunding the agency.

Congress has less than two weeks to clear the package for President Donald Trump’s signature before federal funding is set to lapse for the programs it covers, which account for more than 70 percent of the cash lawmakers approve each year to keep federal agencies running.

Because the Senate is in recess this week, the chamber will need to pass the legislation when senators return the last week of January if Congress is going to head off another funding lapse.

Within the stopgap funding patch enacted in November, lawmakers approved a full year of funding for the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as the operations of Congress and the FDA. Then last week the Senate cleared a package funding the departments of Justice, Interior, Commerce and Energy, as well as the EPA, water programs and federal science initiatives.

The House passed a package last week that would fund the departments of Treasury and State, along with the IRS and foreign aid. The Senate also needs to clear that funding legislation to avert a partial government shutdown at month’s end.