US House Aims to Pass Spending Bill to Avert Weekend Government Shutdown

• The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday will try to pass legislation funding a broad swath of the federal government through the fiscal year that began in October, as yet another threat of a partial shutdown looms.
• Failure by the House and Democratic-majority Senate to pass and send to President Joe Biden this package of six spending bills would trigger federal worker furloughs and suspend some agency operations beginning on Saturday when stop-gap funding expires.
• A 1,050-page cluster of bills is proposed to fund various federal agencies, including Agriculture, Justice, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, military base construction projects, and veteran care. House Speaker Mike Johnson, with a slim 219-213 majority in the Republican-controlled chamber, may rely on Democratic votes for passage, intending to send the legislation to the Senate for action on Thursday or Friday.
• The far-right House Freedom Caucus opposes the bill, citing concerns about exceeding spending caps and neglecting Republican policy priorities. Members of this group often vote against spending bills and advocate for deeper spending cuts despite challenges in Senate approval and obtaining Biden's signature.
• Congress is more than five months late in passing full-year government funding measures, with a March 22 deadline for completing the remaining six bills after the proposed six bills are passed. The second package of bills includes major government agencies like the Defense Department, Homeland Security, State Department, and Health and Human Services. The combined spending for the two batches of bills is $1.66 trillion for fiscal 2024, slightly lower than the previous year's $1.7 trillion in discretionary spending.
• Agencies such as the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms face potential spending cuts.

(Source: Reuters)