Congressional lawmakers release funding framework to avoid shutdown

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Congressional lawmakers Jan. 7 released the framework for a nearly $1.7 trillion agreement to fund the federal government in 2024, keeping funding intact for some domestic and social safety net programs despite demands from some Republicans to trim the budget.

The framework, if passed as legislation, would avert a federal government shutdown, which Catholic advocacy groups, including the U.S. bishops’ conference, have previously cautioned against. Those groups argued a shutdown could impact programs supporting the poor and vulnerable, as well as Catholic and other ministry to U.S. military personnel.

The deal comes shortly before funding is scheduled to run out for many parts of the government — including some veterans assistance and food security programs — on Jan. 19.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced the deal reached with the Senate and the White House in a “Dear Colleague” letter to members Jan. 7, The Hill reported.

“The topline constitutes $1.590 trillion for (fiscal 2024) — the statutory levels of the Fiscal Responsibility Act. That includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for nondefense,” Johnson said in the letter.

In a joint statement, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, said, “The bipartisan topline appropriations agreement clears the way for Congress to act over the next few weeks in order to maintain important funding priorities for the American people and avoid a government shutdown.”

“The framework agreement to proceed will enable the appropriators to address many of the major challenges America faces at home and abroad,” Schumer and Jeffries said. “It will also allow us to keep the investments for hardworking American families secured by the legislative achievements of President Biden and Congressional Democrats. Finally, we have made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress.”

President Joe Biden said in a statement that the “bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities.”

“It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring,” Biden said. “It rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies.

“I want to thank Leaders Schumer and Jeffries for their leadership in reaching this framework. Now, congressional Republicans must do their job, stop threatening to shut down the government, and fulfill their basic responsibility to fund critical domestic and national security priorities, including my supplemental request,” the president added. “It’s time for them to act.”

A messaging guide from Johnson’s office to GOP lawmakers obtained by Axios said, “As promised, the Speaker negotiated from a position of strength with the Democrat-controlled Senate and White House to deliver the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade.”

But the far-right House Freedom Caucus called the framework a “total failure” and “totally unacceptable” in its own statement.

“Republicans promised millions of voters that we would fight to change the status quo, and it is long past time to deliver,” that group said.

In September, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services, who is president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote in a Sept. 21 letter to the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the House and Senate that “on numerous occasions over the past several decades, the USCCB has called for bipartisan action to avert or bring an end to federal government shutdowns and the hardships that come when Congress and administrations fail to reach agreements on such actions.”

In a separate statement, Archbishop Broglio said failure to pass a budget “negatively impacts religious expression in the military as this Archdiocese and many of my priests are blocked from ministry.”

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