Speaker Johnson Secures Some Conservative Wins in Spending Fight, Cutting FBI, ATF, and EPA Budgets

Speaker Johnson has secured some wins for his Republican colleagues in the spending negotiations with Senator Schumer and the White House, cutting the budgets of the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. On Sunday, Messrs. Johnson and Schumer announced an agreement for some federal spending for the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on September 30. In total, the two legislative leaders have agreed on funding numbers for six of Congress’s 12 appropriations bills. The deal would also bar the Department of Justice from investigating parents who speak at local school board meetings and would bar law enforcement from seizing veterans’ firearms under red flag laws without a court order. “Even with a divided government and a historically small House majority, House Republicans have worked hard to successfully move the policy and spending priorities of the federal government away from the previous Pelosi–Schumer [2023] appropriations,” Mr. Johnson wrote on X Sunday. “House Republicans secured key conservative policy victories, rejected left-wing proposals, and imposed sharp cuts to agencies and programs critical to President Biden’s agenda.”The bill would allow for a 10 percent cut to the EPA’s budget, a 6 percent cut to the FBI’s spending, and a 7 percent cut to the ATF budget. Democrats secured increased funding levels for the Women, Infants, and Children food program and investments in healthcare. “After a lot of negotiations and hard work with the Congressional leaders, the Appropriations Committee, and all our Senators, this first bipartisan spending package maintains the aggressive investments Democrats secured for American families, American workers, and America’s national defense,” Mr. Schumer says. “Throughout the negotiations, Democrats fought hard to protect against cuts to housing and nutrition programs, and keep out harmful provisions that would further restrict access to women’s health, or roll back the progress we’ve made to fight climate change.”The most liberal member of the upper chamber, Senator Sanders, came out in favor of the deal quickly, touting its major investments in rural healthcare, community health centers, and scholarship programs for would-be doctors. “The funding deal is not the end of the discussion,” Mr. Sanders says. “It is just the beginning.”Conservatives in both Houses are deeply frustrated by the package they have seen so far. The top-line agreement number for $1.59 trillion in nondiscretionary, nondefense spending was reached under Speaker McCarthy last year. Mr. Schumer “just released the text for the first six spending bills we’re supposed to vote on this week that includes 605 PAGES OF EARMARKS,” Senator Scott of Florida writes. “One example? Schumer’s $1 MILLION ask to build a new environmental justice center in NYC.”According to an analysis by the Washington Post, the biggest spenders on earmarks are House Republicans. Senator Lee says that those pet project-loving GOP lawmakers are “turned” into Democrats when the opportunity arises. The six appropriations bills that have been negotiated and finalized are due to expire on Friday at midnight. The House is expected to vote on the measure when it returns to session on Tuesday. The other six appropriations bills will expire on March 22 at midnight. Mr. Johnson’s decisions to deploy a short-term continuing resolution on February 29 to keep the government open through the partial government shutdown deadlines of March 8 and March 22 angered his conservative colleagues — so much so that Democrats are now saying they would help protect him from a motion to vacate the chair, which is the mechanism for removing a speaker. Congressman Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, says he would “never” allow Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene or her allies to oust Mr. Johnson.

Speaker Johnson Secures Some Conservative Wins in Spending Fight, Cutting FBI, ATF, and EPA Budgets

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