Congress on Tuesday rolled out its last major funding deal of the year and is expected to move quickly to try to pass it ahead of a Friday government shutdown deadline.
The bill, which is more than 1,500 pages, would keep the government funded at current levels through March 14, buying time for the incoming Congress to finish its funding work for fiscal 2025.
It also includes a number of add-ons, including more than $100 billion in disaster and emergency funding, a health care-related package, and an extension of the farm bill.
Below are just some of the highlights from the package:
Disaster assistance
FILE – A tattered American flag flaps outside a home with furniture and household items damaged by Hurricane Helene piled outside along the street awaiting pickup ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Milton in Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., Oct. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)
Lawmakers agreed to tack on roughly $100 billion in disaster aid as members on both sides of the aisle have dialed up pressure on leaders for relief following hurricanes Helene and Milton.
That includes nearly $30 billion in funding for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as officials have sounded alarm over the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund in recent months. It also includes disaster relief for farmers, and $4 million for the Office of Inspector General for oversight.
There’s also about $20 billion for disaster assistance to farmers and producers that falls under dollars for the Department of Agriculture, roughly $1 billion for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program, and more than $800 million for the Emergency Conservation Program, as outlined in a breakdown of the disaster relief portion of the package.
More than $10 billion in funding would also go toward the departments of Interior, Agriculture Forest Service and the Environmental Protection Agency for costs incurred by disasters in 2024 and in recent years.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development would also receive $12 billion for Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery, and negotiators say more than $3 billion would go to the Defense Department for repair from extreme weather events for military programs.
The Defense Department would also receive about $2 billion in funds partly for construction on Guam following Typhoon Mawar.
PBM reforms, health extenders
Prescription pills are shown Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021 in Washington. Medicare enrollees who take expensive medicines could save thousands of dollars a year under the Democrats’ sweeping social agenda bill, but those benefits would build gradually, starting in a couple of years with a check on price increases and limits on insulin costs. A cap on out-of-pocket costs would follow in 2024, and a year later patients will begin to see lower prices negotiated by Medicare. (AP Photo)
Lawmakers agreed to attach an expansive health care package to the legislation. The health portion contains reforms to the pharmaceutical benefit managers (PBMs) industry, extensions of Medicare telehealth flexibilities, reauthorizations of legislation to prevent pandemics and address the opioid crisis, payments to community health centers and other policies.
The PBM changes have been a bipartisan priority for years but until now never made it to the finish. PBMs negotiate discounted drug prices for insurers and employers.
The measures include a ban on linking PBM compensation to a drug’s Medicare price. Lawmakers and PBM critics say higher drug prices lead to higher fees to PBMs; the higher the price of a covered drug, the steeper the potential discount, some of which PBMs keep as profit. So there’s an incentive for PBMs to steer patients to the highest cost drugs.
Critics have long argued PBMs operate essentially in the shadows, and the funding bill includes new reporting requirements to increase transparency, including requiring PBMs to disclose the cost and reimbursement of drugs and any fees or discounts involved.
The PBM changes will be used to help pay for some of the other health provisions.
Farm bill extension
Farmers of the Voznesenka-Agro farm harvest with their combine in a wheat field not far from Melitopol, south Ukraine, July 15, 2022.
The package includes another one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill after Congress also failed to pass a longer extension last year, as well as an additional $10 billion in economic assistance for farmers.
Lawmakers said some of the assistance for farmers had emerged as a key sticking point as funding talks ramped up in the past week. Some Republicans threatened to vote against the stopgap measure if it did not include economic assistance for farmers and ranchers.
Key bridge funding
Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed in the early morning hours of March 26 after a container ship called the Dali lost power and smashed into it.
Democrats have also lauded a section of the bill they say would cover replacement costs for the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore.
“With the inclusion in the Continuing Resolution of our Baltimore BRIDGE Relief Act, Congress is now committed to covering the full cost of replacing the bridge. This will allow the bridge it to be built as quickly as possible,” Maryland Democratic Sens. Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen said in a joint statement Tuesday.
“Our provision also ensures that the federal taxpayers will be reimbursed through proceeds from insurance payments and litigation taken on by the Department of Justice, the Maryland Attorney General and others.”
There’s also $8 billion in funding for federal highway and roads disaster relief that falls under the Transportation Department.
Small Business Association
Water left by Hurricane Milton floods a road inside Pines Trailer Park, where debris was still piled outside homes from Hurricane Helene, in Bradenton Beach on Anna Maria Island, Fla., on Oct. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
Lawmakers agreed on more than $2 billion in funding for the Small Business Administration after officials said its disaster loan program — which businesses and homeowners rely on for low-interest loans to recover from disasters — ran out of funds during hurricane season.
RFK Stadium
Washington Commanders quarterback Sam Howell (14) throwing the ball during the first half of an NFL football game against the San Francisco 49ers, Sunday, Dec. 31, 2023, in Landover, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Another line item in the stopgap would also transfer administrative jurisdiction over the RFK Memorial Stadium Campus to the District of Columbia in a move that could lead to the return of the Washington Commanders to the nation’s capital.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who led a legislative effort along with Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), expressed excitement about language getting tucked into the stopgap to make the move earlier Tuesday.
If it passes, the legislation unveiled Tuesday would direct the Interior secretary to transfer administrative jurisdiction to the District, allowing it to use the campus for stadium redevelopment and other purposes.
“We figured out a way to make this work, to be able to attract the Commanders back to Washington. It’s a win-win for Washington,” Comer told The Hill, adding he and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) have “been in constant communication for months” as part of the ongoing effort.
Here’s some of what was not included:
Biden’s Ukraine ask
File – President Joe Biden speaks about his administrations economic playbook and the future of the American economy at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Biden administration’s request for $24 billion in funding related to Ukraine does not make an appearance, after Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) rejected the request for further assistance earlier this month.
“I’m not planning to do that,” Johnson said at the time. He also said Trump’s election would “change the dynamic of the Russian war on Ukraine” and that lawmakers would “wait and take the new commander in chief’s direction on all that.”
Offsets
Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) is seen following a joint meeting of Congress to hear Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on April 11, 2024.
The designated emergency and disaster funding tacked onto the continuing resolution clocks in at about $110 billion – but without the offsets some Republicans had hoped for.
“I’m always happy to look at any offsets we have and that we can pass, and so far, we haven’t been able to get something to get the votes for them,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told The Hill on Tuesday when asked about past discussions around offsets.
Still, the lack of offsets is sure to upset conservatives who have called for any additional funding to be offset with savings elsewhere.
RECA deal
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) speaks to reporters as he leaves the Capitol following a vote on Thursday, December 12, 2024.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) also called out Johnson in a post on social media shortly after the package’s release for the absence of a deal on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Hawley wrote that Johnson “personally killed a bipartisan, bicameral expansion + spending cap RECA deal.”
“It was him alone. BUT he’s willing to spend BILLIONS on Ukraine and foreign wars and every pork barrel project known to man,” he added.
The Hill has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.
Nathaniel Weixel contributed.
Updated at 10:21 p.m. EST
