What’s in the $1.2 trillion government funding package

By CNN Newsource

Published March 21, 2024 12:00 PM

By Tami Luhby and Katie Lobosco, CNN

Congress released a massive $1.2 trillion bill on Thursday to fund the rest of the federal government.

The package, which runs more than 1,000 pages, would provide funding for the departments of Defense, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State and the legislative branch. Lawmakers have until the end of Friday to approve the bill to avoid a partial government shutdown.

The legislation would complete the funding of federal agencies through the fiscal year, which ends September 30. Congress earlier this month approved funding for the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Justice, Veterans Affairs, Energy, Interior, Transportation and Housing and Urban Development, as well as the Food and Drug Administration, military construction and other federal programs.

House Republicans and Democrats each provided summaries of what’s in the bill.

Here’s what’s in the package

Homeland Security: The package would provide nearly $62 billion in total discretionary resources for Homeland Security, which was the most contentious of the appropriation bills that lawmakers were negotiating. It would include nearly $59 billion for non-defense programs and more than $3 billion for defense-related programs. The total figure excludes certain offsetting funds.

US Customs and Border Protection would receive nearly $20 billion, an increase of $3 billion from the prior fiscal year. It would provide $495 million to bring the number of Border Patrol agents to 22,000, the highest number ever funded, and $20 million to hire an additional 150 officers to support counter-fentanyl efforts.

It would bolster funding for processing capacity, medical care and the support of children’s well-being, but it does not provide money for a border wall. It increases funding for Transportation Security Administration personnel by more than $1 billion.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement would receive close to $10 billion. More than $721 million would be provided for transportation and removal operations of people who no longer have a legal basis to remain in the US or who pose a security or safety risk, nearly $292 million more than in President Joe Biden’s budget.

It would increase the number of detention beds to 41,500, which is 7,500 more beds than funded in the prior fiscal year, as part of more than $3 billion for custody operations, the highest amount ever appropriated.

The package would also boost funding for countering fentanyl and human smuggling investigations, non-intrusive inspection technology and staff to assist with the management and processing of those on the non-detained and detained dockets.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services would receive $281 million, including $160 million for refugee processing, asylum and work authorization backlog reduction.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency would receive more than $25 billion, nearly $73 million below the prior fiscal year.

Defense: The bill would provide $824 billion for defense, an increase of nearly $27 billion from fiscal year 2023.

It would hike basic military pay by 5.2%, the largest boost in more than 20 years. It would also beef up the basic allowance for housing by 5.4% and an allowance for meals by 1.7%. Plus, it would continue funding for suicide prevention and sexual assault programs.

The package would provide $300 million for the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative to aid the nation against Russian aggression. The funding is separate from a larger assistance package for Ukraine that is currently bogged down on Capitol Hill.

It also would preserve the agency’s travel policy to allow service members and their families access to reproductive health care. And it would cut nearly $51 million from diversity and inclusion programs, rolling back support to fiscal year 2021 levels.

The bill would also increase military funding for Taiwan to $300 million. The funds come from the State Department’s foreign military financing program. Last year, the US approved funding through this program for the first time for Taiwan. The program is typically only used for sovereign nations – a move that angered China, which claims the self-governing island as its own.

State: The package would provide more than $58 billion for state, foreign operations and related programs, a decrease of more than $3 billion from the prior fiscal year.

It would fully fund the US security commitment to Israel of more than $3 billion and prohibit taxpayer dollars from going to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, or UNRWA, which supports Palestinian refugees and has come under fire after Israel alleged some of its staff were involved in Hamas’ October 7 attack. The bill would also eliminate funding for the United Nations Commission of Inquiry against Israel. And it would implement new conditions on any assistance to Gaza.

It would funnel nearly $9 billion for international security assistance to allies and partners through international narcotics control and law enforcement activities, antiterrorism programs and peacekeeping operations, among other efforts.

It would also provide nearly $9 billion in humanitarian assistance to various migration, refugee and international disaster programs.

To address China’s activities in the Indo-Pacific region, the package would provide $300 million to Taiwan to support loans and loan guarantees, $400 million to the Countering the People’s Republic of China Influence Fund and nearly $2 billion “to help counter the growing influence of the PRC (China) in developing countries,” according to the House Democrats’ fact sheet.

It would also direct $125 million to counter fentanyl and other synthetic drugs coming into the US from other countries for the first time.

The package would invest $10 billion in global health initiatives, including the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, known as PEPFAR, and programs to improve maternal and child health and fight infectious disease. That would be nearly $531 million less than the prior fiscal year.

And it would provide an additional 12,000 Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans that helped the US.

Education: The bill would provide $79 billion for the Department of Education, which is $500 million less than the prior fiscal year. The amount is $22 billion more than House Republicans proposed, but $11 billion less than Biden’s budget request.

Nearly $44 billion would be provided for K-12 education. About $18.4 billion – an increase of $20 million above fiscal year 2023 – would go to the Title I program, the largest federal funding source for K-12 schools.

The package calls for nearly $25 billion for federal student aid programs, equal to fiscal year 2023. This keeps the maximum Pell grant, the government’s key aid program for low-income college students, at $7,395 per person. There is an increase in funding for historically Black colleges and universities, known as HBCUs; Hispanic serving institutions; and tribally controlled colleges and universities.

There is no new money for the free community college initiative that Biden has proposed, according to a summary provided by House Republicans.

Financial services and general government: The package includes $26 billion for financial services and general government, a decrease of $1 billion, or 4%, from the prior fiscal year.

The Internal Revenue Service would receive $12 billion, the same as the prior fiscal year and $1 billion more than House Republicans had wanted to provide.

The package would officially claw back about $20 billion of the $80 billion that was provided to the IRS by the Democrat-backed Inflation Reduction Act. The recission was agreed to by Democrats last year in a deal to address the debt ceiling and avoid a US default. These funds were meant to go to the IRS over a 10-year period and support efforts to modernize the agency and ramp up enforcement.

Republicans and Democrats have been at odds over the IRS funding. Despite Democrat assurances that the IRS won’t increase enforcement on taxpayers making less than $400,0000 a year, Republicans claim that agency will use the money to hound middle-class taxpayers and small business owners.

The legislation would provide $143 million for disaster relief efforts at the Small Business Administration, the same amount as last year. The judiciary would receive nearly $9 billion, an increase of $169 million over the prior fiscal year.

The package would also provide $750 million for court security for justices, judges, their families and employees. It would also provide $55 million for election security grants for states to combat voter fraud, maintain voter rolls and improve the administration and security of federal elections.

Labor: The package would provide nearly $14 billion for the Labor Department, which is $145 million below the prior fiscal year’s level. The amount is nearly $5 billion more than House Republicans proposed.

It would provide more than $10 billion for the Employment and Training Administration, slightly lower than the prior fiscal year, and $1.9 billion for worker protection agencies, the same amount as in the last fiscal year’s package.

Health and Human Services: The bill would provide more than $117 billion for HHS. That would be $14 billion more than House Republicans proposed, but $12 billion below Biden’s budget request.

The Child Care and Development Block Grant, which provides child care assistance to low-income parents, would receive nearly $9 billion, an increase of $725 million from the last fiscal year. Head Start, which provides school readiness services to low-income families, would receive more than $12 billion, a boost of $275 million.

The package would provide $4 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, an increase of $25 million from the prior fiscal year.

The National Institutes of Health would receive close to $49 billion, an increase of $300 million from the prior fiscal year, excluding mandatory funding from the 21^st Century Cures Act. The National Cancer Institute and research on Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias would receive funding boosts.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would receive $9 billion, with small increases in funding for safe motherhood and infant health, as well as food safety.

The package would also provide additional money for mental health and substance abuse programs and services.

Congress: The bill would provide nearly $7 billion for the legislative branch, $150 million below the last fiscal year’s level. It would maintain support for an operating budget for congressional offices and would provide funding to pay interns.

The United States Capitol Police would receive nearly $792 million, an increase of $57 million from the prior fiscal year. It would allow the force to hire up to 2,204 sworn officers and 636 civilian employees and continue efforts to beef up the physical security of the Capitol. It also calls for $2 million to provide security to lawmakers outside of the Capitol – including residential and district office security.