US Congress Lines Up Stopgap Bill to Avert Partial Government Shutdown

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Republicans and Democrats in the US Congress unveiled a stopgap measure on Tuesday 17 December 2024 to keep federal agencies funded through 14 March 2025, which would avert a partial government shutdown that would otherwise begin on Saturday 21 December 2024.

The measure would likely keep the roughly $6.2 trillion federal budget running at its current level, funding programmes ranging from the military, air traffic controllers and federal regulators for areas ranging from drug safety to securities markets.

Rank-and-file members of Congress will now review the measure's details, with some hardline Republicans in the House of Representatives already signaling opposition to some elements, meaning that some Democratic votes will likely be necessary for passage.

It was unclear when the Republican-controlled House will vote, but if successful the Democratic-majority Senate would aim to take up the legislation before Friday's midnight deadline and send it to President Joe Biden to sign it into law.

The package includes $100.4 billion in new emergency funding to help states including North Carolina and Florida recover from devastating hurricanes, as well as western wildfires and other recent disasters.

That money would include $29 billion for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's disaster relief fund; $21 billion for aid to farmers hit by flooding and other losses; and $10 billion in economic assistance for them, according to the legislative text.

State and local communities would receive $12 billion in block grants, and $8 billion would be earmarked for the Transportation Department's highway and road disaster relief.

Nearly $5.7 billion in new funding would go to the Pentagon's Virginia-class submarine building by General Dynamics Corp and Huntington Ingalls Industries, and about $2.9 billion is set for the Columbia-class model.

The spending package includes more than $2 billion to help small businesses bounce back after natural disasters, and approximately $740 million to repair National Aeronautics and Space Administration facilities after recent hurricanes.

Also tucked into the legislation is a greenlight for year-round sales of gasoline with a higher ethanol blend, known as E15, and more than $13 million for security for US Supreme Court justices at their residences.

Should lawmakers fail to act in time, federal agencies would enter a partial shutdown beginning on Saturday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson leads a narrow and restive 219-211 Republican majority and has repeatedly over the past year had to rely on Democratic support to pass major legislation.

Representative Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement she supported the "responsible and necessary" spending package.

Rising debt

The stopgap measure is needed because Congress failed to pass its one-dozen annual appropriations bills in time for the current fiscal year, which began on 1 October 2024. The government's "mandatory" programmes, which include Social Security and Medicare retirement and healthcare benefits and represent about two-thirds of the budget, renew automatically.

That has contributed to the rising federal debt, which exceeds $36 trillion. Congress will have to address that again early next year, when a 2023 deal to extend the nation's "debt ceiling" expires. Failure could shock bond markets with potentially severe economic consequences.

Democrats had pushed for a longer bill funding the government through the end of its current fiscal year ending 30 September 2024, but Republicans wanted to wait for final agreement until after President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in on 20 January 2025 and their party takes its majorities in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

Trump and congressional Republicans campaigned all year on a promise of significantly cutting the number of federal workers and proposing deep cuts to many of the government's programmes.

Trump has created an advisory committee called the Department of Government Efficiency, headed by Tesla founder Elon Musk, the world's richest person, and former presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Neither has any government experience.

Riding along in this spending bill is a one-year extension of federal farm programmes, including commodity subsidies and food and nutrition benefits for low-income people. Without such an extension, prices for milk, cheese and other dairy products would skyrocket after 31 December 2024.