Spending deal bars US funds to UN agency for Palestinians
Congressional leaders have rolled out a $1.1tn spending package that would fund large swaths of the government for the rest of the fiscal year 2024, the product of a deal between President Joe Biden, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.
The package combines funding for half of the 12 annual government spending bills, including for the departments of defense, labor, homeland security, health and human services, education and state; the internal revenue service; and general government foreign operations.
The package includes over $490m in funding to hire 22,000 border patrol agents, which Republicans are touting as the “highest level ever funded”, the Hill reports.
Negotiators have been highlighting funding boosts for border security technology, increases to Border Patrol overtime pay that had been green-lit in the annual defense authorization bill last year, and funding for 41,500 detention beds. Democrats have also seized on a lack of border wall funding after a partisan fight over DHS spending.
The package includes more than $10.5bn for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is $1.2bn above fiscal year 2023 levels.
Republicans secured a 12-month prohibition on federal funding for the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The package also includes $6bn for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, as well as $1.65bn for the Global Fund.
Key events
Martin Pengelly
Hunter Biden, who has pleaded not guilty to federal tax and gun charges, has testified in private. So has James Biden, the president’s brother.
Wednesday’s hearing featured two Republican witnesses, both former associates of Hunter Biden. Tony Bobulinski appeared in person. Jason Galanis appeared by video link from prison in Alabama, where he is serving a near-16-year sentence for fraud.
Another key source for Republicans, Alexander Smirnov, was recently imprisoned in Nevada after being charged with lying to the FBI about supposed corruption involving the Biden family. Smirnov has also been linked to Russian intelligence.
On Wednesday, Bobulinski and Galanis claimed Joe Biden was involved in family business activities, though a meeting described by Bobulinski took place in 2017, after Biden left office as vice-president and years before he beat Donald Trump to become president.
Martin Pengelly
A White House spokesperson poured cold water on Republicans’ stated intention to invite Joe Biden to testify in public in his own impeachment hearings, lamenting “a sad stunt” and telling the rightwing congressman steering the effort: “Call it a day, pal.”
James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican chair of the House oversight committee, has led attempts to impeach the president over alleged corruption involving the business dealings of his son Hunter Biden. At the end of a long hearing on Wednesday, Comer said:
In the coming days I will invite President Biden to the oversight committee to provide his testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars … We need to hear from the president himself.
Ian Sams, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations, responded swiftly and brutally. “LOL,” Sams wrote, adding a face-palm emoji.
LOL 🤦♂️
Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations.
This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment.
Call it a day, pal. https://t.co/XZpGEo8NOj
— Ian Sams (@IanSams46) March 20, 2024
Johnson says he will invite Netanyahu to address Congress
The House speaker, Mike Johnson, has said he plans to invite Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, to address Congress, amid rising tensions between Democrats and the Israeli leader over the war in Gaza.
“We will certainly extend that invitation,” Johnson said in an interview on CNBC this morning.
The speaker told reporters on Wednesday that he held a “lengthy” conversation with Netanyahu, and that he was considering inviting the Israeli leader to speak with lawmakers.
It comes after the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish politician in the US and a longtime advocate for Israel, blasted Netanyahu in a floor speech and called for Israel to hold new elections.
Spending deal bars US funds to UN agency for Palestinians
Congressional leaders have rolled out a $1.1tn spending package that would fund large swaths of the government for the rest of the fiscal year 2024, the product of a deal between President Joe Biden, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.
The package combines funding for half of the 12 annual government spending bills, including for the departments of defense, labor, homeland security, health and human services, education and state; the internal revenue service; and general government foreign operations.
The package includes over $490m in funding to hire 22,000 border patrol agents, which Republicans are touting as the “highest level ever funded”, the Hill reports.
Negotiators have been highlighting funding boosts for border security technology, increases to Border Patrol overtime pay that had been green-lit in the annual defense authorization bill last year, and funding for 41,500 detention beds. Democrats have also seized on a lack of border wall funding after a partisan fight over DHS spending.
The package includes more than $10.5bn for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is $1.2bn above fiscal year 2023 levels.
Republicans secured a 12-month prohibition on federal funding for the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The package also includes $6bn for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, as well as $1.65bn for the Global Fund.
Dan Milmo
Donald Trump’s wealth is set to increase by more than $3bn (£2.35bn) if a shareholder vote on Friday paves the way for the float of his Trump Media business.
The former president is preparing to list Trump Media & Technology Group, which operates the Truth Social tech platform, via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or Spac.
The Spac, called Digital World Acquisition, has scheduled a vote on the merger with Trump Media for Friday. However, there are complications around the planned vote after Digital World sued sponsor ARC Global Investments, which is trying to delay the deal, to back the merger.
If the merger goes ahead and Trump Media goes public as soon as next week, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee would not be able to cash in immediately, however. Trump would need a waiver to circumvent a provision that blocks major shareholders from selling stock for six months.
Trump’s finances are under pressure as he prepares to contest the presidency with Joe Biden for a second time. Last month Trump was formally ordered by a New York judge to pay $454m following a civil fraud case, in which the former president was found to have manipulated the value of his properties to obtain advantageous loan and insurance rates.
Here’s the full text of the 1,012-page, six-bill spending package unveiled by congressional leaders early this morning.
If passed by Friday night, the package would take the threat of a government shutdown off the table until the beginning of the next fiscal year.
Mike Johnson, the House speaker, touted what he called a series of wins for Republicans in the spending package, from higher spending for defense and border security to a cutoff of US funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).
In a statement released along with the text of the legislation, Johnson said:
This FY24 appropriations legislation is a serious commitment to strengthening our national defense by moving the Pentagon toward a focus on its core mission.
In a closed-door meeting with GOP lawmakers on Wednesday, Johnson noted the bill funds 8,000 additional detention beds for noncitizens awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country.
“The homeland [security] piece was the most difficult to negotiate because the two parties have a wide chasm between them,” he said at the GOP leadership’s weekly press conference yesterday.
He added:
I think the final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions in, and wins, and it moved in a direction that we want even with our tiny, historically small majority.
Congress unveils $1.1tn spending package ahead of shutdown
Good morning US politics readers. Congressional leaders on Tuesday formally announced a $1.1tn spending deal to fund the federal government, giving lawmakers less than two days to avert a partial government shutdown. The package is the most substantial bipartisan legislation that Mike Johnson has negotiated since he ascended to the speaker’s chair, and comes after disputes among House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House over border security funding.
The Republican-controlled House will vote on the sprawling package on Friday, leaving the Democratic-majority Senate only hours to pass the package of six bills that covers about two-thirds of the $1.66tn in discretionary government spending for the fiscal year that began on 1 October.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
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Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, is in Cairo to discuss the situation in Gaza. He will meet Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, and foreign minister Sameh Shoukry as well the representatives from Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and the Palestinian Authority.
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9am ET. Kevin Hern, chair of the Republican study committee and other members of the RSC will unveil the FY2025 budget proposal.
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10am. The House appropriations committee will hear from Shalanda Young, the director of the Office of Management and Budget.
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11am. Mike Johnson, the House speaker, will host the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the Ghost Army of the second world war.
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12.45pm. Joe Biden will headline a fundraiser in Houston, Texas.
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3.45pm. Doug Emhoff, the second gentleman, will speak in Denver’s Argo Park about rebuilding communities divided by developments decades ago. He’ll be accompanied by Tom Perez, White House intergovernmental affairs director and a Biden senior adviser.
