Congress Signals Bipartisan Agreement on Full Year Appropriations
House Appropriations Chair Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have announced that bipartisan, bicameral negotiators have agreed on a framework for fiscal year 2022 appropriations. According to the Chairs, negotiations have led to agreement prompting Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees to begin hammering out the details on individuals spending numbers.
“I am pleased that we have reached agreement on a framework, which will allow our subcommittees to get to work finalizing an omnibus. We will now proceed with great intensity to enact legislation making transformative investments to create good-paying American jobs, grow opportunity for the middle class, support the vulnerable who work hard, and protect our national security,” Rep. DeLauro stated.
Lawmakers had been struggling to reach a consensus on several issues, including a balance of defense and nondefense spending, a top-line number for the bill, and disagreements over legislative riders.
The continuing resolution passed in the House sought to extend the timeline for settling the disputes on these issues, averting a government shutdown on February 18, 2022. The proposal was unveiled by Chair DeLauro on Monday and is currently being considered in the Senate. The measure would allow the government to remain funded through March 11, 2022.
Sen. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Ranking Member of the Appropriations Commerce, Justice, and Science Subcommittee told Bloomberg Government, “My expectation is that the agreement is pretty well struck, and that the next three weeks of the extension is really only necessary to put an agreement–that’s clearly close to being done–on paper.”
