March 6 (UPI) — The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $467.5 billion federal funding package to avert a shutdown by a 339-85 vote and sent it to the Senate for consideration.
If approved by the Senate and signed into law by President Joe Biden, the “minibus” funding package would fund a variety of federal agencies and programs through the end of the 2024 fiscal year, which runs through September. It also would avert a pending partial shutdown of the federal government after Friday.
The $467.5 billion package is comprised of six appropriations bills that would fund the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Transportation and Veterans Affairs.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the Senate will vote on the measure sometime this week, The Hill and ABC News reported.
A bipartisan coalition of House and Senate lawmakers on Sunday unveiled the six funding bills that they called a “minibus” package, as opposed to an omnibus package.
Members of the House Freedom Caucus opposed passage of the package and on Tuesday in a statement urged other Republican members to reject the proposed funding package.
The Freedom Caucus members said the package “punts on nearly every single Republican policy priority” and surrenders the GOP’s “leverage to force radical Democrats to the table to truly secure the southern border and end the purposeful, dangers mass release of illegal aliens into the United States.”
While on the Senate floor Tuesday, Schumer said he would put the appropriations package up for a Senate vote this week with the goal of enabling Biden to sign them into law by Friday.
“Between now and Friday, the watch words for the Senate will be ‘cooperation’ and ‘speed,'” Schumer told the Senate.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the package “sensible” and urged his Senate colleagues to support it.
