All House Democrats want for Christmas is one final spending bill.
The Senate voted 70-25 on Tuesday to advance a $1.7 trillion omnibus measure early Tuesday that would fund the government through the end of September, preventing a partial government shutdown currently set to begin at 11:59 p.m. Friday.
The procedural vote was to begin debate on the spending legislation. A final Senate vote on the bill could take place on Wednesday, before Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky is expected to address Congress.
“We hope to finish tomorrow,” Republican leader Mitch McConnell told reporters.
The package includes about $45 billion in aid to Ukraine, a 10% boost in defense spending and $40 billion to assist communities reeling from drought, hurricanes and other natural disasters. It also includes reforms to the certification of presidential electoral votes to prevent a reprise of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
One of the last additions to the bill was an amendment banning TikTok from government devices, folding in a measure that was proposed by Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley, and already approved by the Senate.
The proposed emergency assistance for Ukraine comes on top of about $68 billion of previous support for the invaded nation, and surpassed a $37 billion request from the White House.
“Finalizing the omnibus is critical, absolutely critical for supporting our friends in Ukraine,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he was prepared to seek another short-term spending resolution if the bill fails to gain support on both sides of the aisle, which would give the incoming Republican House majority control over shaping a larger package early next year.
The fiscal year 2023 spending bill is already three months late; it was supposed to be approved by Oct. 1.
A pair of short-term extensions pushed the shutdown deadline to Dec. 16 and again to Friday.
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urged lawmakers not to continue to kick the can down the road.
“The choice is clear. We can either do our jobs and fund the government, or we can abandon our responsibilities without a real path forward,” the retiring lawmaker said.
McConnell called the proposal a victory for his party because it scaled back some of the domestic spending increases championed by President Biden, and increased military funding far beyond his request.
“The Congress is rejecting the Biden administration’s vision and doing the exact opposite,” McConnell said.
A sticking point in the new proposal was the location of the FBI’s future headquarters. Maryland lawmakers want to erect the complex at one of two sites in Prince George’s County in order to boost the economy of the largest majority-black county in the US.
The General Services Administration was considering five criteria for the new site, with proximity to the FBI training academy in Quantico, Virginia considered more than twice as important as equity considerations.
Those priorities were criticized at a recent forum by Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who pointed to a Biden executive order that emphasized the government-wide importance of racial equity.
“I would submit that the GSA and the FBI clearly haven’t gotten the message, given the low weight they’ve given to this factor,” Van Hollen said.
Language in the new proposal would require the GSA to conduct “separate and detailed consultations” with lawmakers on both sides of the Beltway.
The Senate is expected to take up the bill first. It would need support from at least 10 GOP senators before it could be voted on in the House.
Some lawmakers said there wasn’t enough time to read the bill’s thousands of pages.
“We still haven’t seen a single page of the Pelosi-Schumer spending bill, and they’re expecting us to pass it by the end of this week,” tweeted Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican. “It’s insane.”
Congress has failed to pass an on-time budget for 26 consecutive years, with the last spending bill to beat the annual Sept. 30 deadline signed by President Bill Clinton on that day in 1996.
With AP wires
