Lawmakers reached agreement with the White House Sunday on topline spending levels for fiscal 2024, clearing the way for appropriators to finalize budget details for USDA and other departments and agencies.
The $1.6 trillion agreement caps non-defense spending at $772.7 billion, a priority for Democrats that reflects the level set by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, last spring’s agreement that raised the federal debt ceiling.
“The bipartisan funding framework congressional leaders have reached moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities,” President Joe Biden said in a statement.
The deal “rejects deep cuts to programs hardworking families count on, and provides a path to passing full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and are free of any extreme policies.”
In a separate statement, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said the cap on non-defense spending allows Democrats to “protect key domestic priorities like veterans benefits, health care and nutrition assistance from the draconian cuts sought by right-wing extremists.”
Still, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said in a “dear colleague” letter that the deal would reduce non-defense funding from FY23 levels.
He also said the deal would provide $16 billion in additional savings from the debt deal, including $10 billion in cuts to the Internal Revenue Service. The remaining $6 billion would be rescinded pandemic funding.
But Johnson may need a significant number of Democratic votes to pass at least some of the appropriations measures. The House Freedom Caucus quickly announced an official position Sunday opposing the topline agreement, calling it “totally unacceptable.”
“Republicans promised millions of voters that we would fight to change the status quo, and it is long past time to deliver,” the HFC statement says.
Congressional negotiators have very little time to finalize budgets for some departments and agencies. A continuing resolution enacted in November set a pair of deadlines for Congress to reach agreement on fiscal 2024 spending.
Departments and agencies covered by the Agriculture, Energy-Water, Transportation-HUD and Military Construction appropriations measures are funded through Jan. 19. The Agriculture bill funds USDA and FDA.
The top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Susan Collins of Maine, released a statement underscoring the task still facing negotiators. “Congress now faces the challenge of having only 12 days to negotiate and write language, secure passage by both chambers, and get the first four appropriations bills signed into law,” she said.
Departments and agencies covered by the other eight annual appropriations bills, including the Interior and Labor departments and the Environmental Protection Agency, are funded under the CR through Feb. 2.
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The Jan. 19 deadline “is tight to say the least,” White House Budget Director Shalanda Young told reporters on Friday at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast. She called on Republicans to agree to the spending limits set in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which reflected the debt-ceiling agreement between then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and President Joe Biden.
A small bipartisan group of senators has been negotiating a deal on border security, and they hope to have the text of an agreement ready this week, Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Fox News Sunday.
Johnson wouldn't commit to supporting such an agreement when asked about it on Face the Nation, calling the question hypothetical. "Of course, we want a deal. We want to solve this crisis. We ... have a moral obligation to do so," he said.
Meanwhile this week, the House floor calendar includes a bill, the No Russian Agriculture Act, that would instruct the Treasury Department to pressure the World Bank and other international financial institutions to “support projects that decrease the reliance of countries on Russia for agricultural commodities, particularly fertilizer and grain” and “ensure the resilience of global grain supplies.”
The measure is co-sponsored by the top Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters of California, and Rep. Zach Nunn, R-Iowa.
Waters has said the bill “would help decrease global reliance on Russian agriculture while also strengthening resiliency to food scarcity from Russia’s unlawful war in Ukraine.”
Elsewhere, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack will be in New Hampshire and Maine on Monday to talk about various USDA programs, including disaster assistance. He plans stops in Durham, N.H., and in Portland, Maine, where USDA says he will be joined by House Agriculture Committee member Chellie Pingree, D-Maine.
Here is a list of agriculture- or rural-related events scheduled for this week in Washington and elsewhere (all times EDT):
Monday, Jan. 8
1 p.m. – Agri-Pulse webinar: "Beyond Cover Crops and Tillage: How Can We Really Calculate Farm Carbon Emission?"
Tuesday, Jan. 9
Wednesday, Jan. 10
Thursday, Jan. 11
8:30 a.m. – USDA releases Weekly Export Sales report.
10 a.m. – Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on electric vehicle incentives, 366 Dirksen.
Friday, Jan. 12
Noon – USDA releases monthly World Agriculture Supply and Demand Estimates, and monthly and annual Crop Production reports.
UPDATED at 4 p.m. with spending deal.
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