(The Guardian) Spending deal bars US funds to UN agency for Palestinians
Congressional leaders have rolled out a $1.2tn spending package that would fund large swaths of the government for the rest of the fiscal year 2024, the product of a deal between President Joe Biden, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.
The package combines funding for half of the 12 annual government spending bills, including for the departments of defense, labor, homeland security, health and human services, education and state; the internal revenue service; and general government foreign operations.
The package includes over $490m in funding to hire 22,000 border patrol agents, which Republicans are touting as the “highest level ever funded”, the Hill reports. -- Negotiators have been highlighting funding boosts for border security technology, increases to Border Patrol overtime pay that had been green-lit in the annual defense authorization bill last year, and funding for 41,500 detention beds. Democrats have also seized on a lack of border wall funding after a partisan fight over DHS spending.
The package includes more than $10.5bn for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is $1.2bn above fiscal year 2023 levels.
Republicans secured a 12-month prohibition on federal funding for the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The package also includes $6bn for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, as well as $1.65bn for the Global Fund.
Congressional leaders have rolled out a $1.2tn spending package that would fund large swaths of the government for the rest of the fiscal year 2024, the product of a deal between President Joe Biden, House speaker Mike Johnson and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer.
The package combines funding for half of the 12 annual government spending bills, including for the departments of defense, labor, homeland security, health and human services, education and state; the internal revenue service; and general government foreign operations.
The package includes over $490m in funding to hire 22,000 border patrol agents, which Republicans are touting as the “highest level ever funded”, the Hill reports. -- Negotiators have been highlighting funding boosts for border security technology, increases to Border Patrol overtime pay that had been green-lit in the annual defense authorization bill last year, and funding for 41,500 detention beds. Democrats have also seized on a lack of border wall funding after a partisan fight over DHS spending.
The package includes more than $10.5bn for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which is $1.2bn above fiscal year 2023 levels.
Republicans secured a 12-month prohibition on federal funding for the UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
The package also includes $6bn for the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, as well as $1.65bn for the Global Fund.
