U.S. congressional leaders announce top-line spending deal

Top U.S. congressional leaders on Sunday agreed on a $1.6-trillion top-line federal spending level in a deal aimed at averting a partial government shutdown later this month, Republican U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said.

The top-line figure includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for non-defense spending, Johnson said in a letter to lawmakers on Sunday. The defense portion had already been signed into law by President Joe Biden last month through the defense spending bill.

There were already some disagreements between the two parties regarding what they had agreed to. Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, in a separate statement, mentioned that the non-defense spending figure will be $772.7 billion.

Since early last year, House of Representatives and Senate appropriations committees had been unable to agree on the 12 annual bills needed to fund the government for the fiscal year that began on October 1 due to disagreements over the total amount of money to be spent.

When lawmakers return on Monday from a holiday break, those panels will launch intensive negotiations over how much various agencies, from the Agriculture and Transportation departments to Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, get to spend in the fiscal year that runs through September 30.

They face a January 19 deadline for the first set of bills to move through Congress and a February 2 deadline for the remainder of them.

The non-defense discretionary funding will "protect key domestic priorities like veterans' benefits, healthcare and nutrition assistance" from cuts sought by some Republicans, Schumer, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a joint statement.

Last spring, Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a deal on the $1.59 trillion in fiscal 2024 spending, along with an increase in borrowing authority to avoid a historic U.S. debt default.

However, immediately after that was enacted, a fight broke out over a separate, private agreement by the two men on additional non-defense spending of around $69 billion. 

One Democratic aide on Sunday said that $69 billion in "adjustments" is part of the deal announced on Sunday. 

Another source briefed on the agreement said Republicans won a $6.1 billion "rescission" in unspent COVID aid money.

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: The dome of the U.S. Capitol is seen at dusk in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 13, 2023. /CFP)