Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled legislation on Sunday night to keep the government funded into March, with Schumer saying he plans to take steps to move the legislation through his chamber as soon as Tuesday – just days before a key shutdown deadline.
The text of a two-tiered continuing resolution, which would fund the government past both shutdown deadlines through March 1 and March 8, was released Sunday evening. The deal was reached just days before the first funding deadline of January 19.
“The bipartisan topline funding agreement reached ensures that America will be able to address many of the major challenges our country faces at home and abroad,” Schumer said in a Sunday evening statement.
“To avoid a shutdown, it will take bipartisan cooperation in the Senate and the House to quickly pass the CR and send it to the President’s desk before Friday’s funding deadline,” he added.
In his own statement, Johnson said the short-term spending bill “is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars.”
The resolution will likely need bipartisan support in both chambers to pass through the House and Senate before Friday’s deadline, as conservatives from the House Freedom Caucus quickly panned the legislation.
“This is what surrender looks like,” the caucus posted on X.
Last weekend, Schumer and Johnson announced they had struck a funding agreement on topline spending numbers – a deal far-right members of the House have slammed.
But Johnson said Friday the deal remains in place after he appeared to be at least entertaining the idea of abandoning it in meetings with conservatives.
“We need strong bipartisan support in the House and Senate to prevent the shutdown, to overcome the band of MAGA extremists who somehow, in some dark thinking, think a shutdown would be good for America and the American people,” Schumer said at a news conference earlier in the day.
The agreement includes $1.59 trillion for fiscal year 2024, with $886 billion for defense spending and $704 billion in non-defense spending. Schumer and Johnson also agreed to a $69 billion side deal in adjustments that will go toward non-defense domestic spending.
Schumer called on Democrats and Republicans to work across the aisle to keep the government open, saying Minority Leader Mitch McConnell agrees with his position.
“It’s amazing,” he said at his news conference. “Some of these hard-right extremists say a shutdown would be a good thing, but we know it is not; we’ve seen this movie before, and we know it doesn’t have a happy ending.”
This story and headline been updated with additional developments.
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