Congressional leaders reached a bipartisan deal early Wednesday providing $13.6 billion to help Ukraine and European allies plus billions more to battle the pandemic as part of a long-overdue $1.5 trillion bill financing federal agencies for the rest of this year.
“We are pleased to announce that we have reached a historic bipartisan Omnibus Appropriations Agreement for the American people for the remainder of FY2022, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a joint statement. “This bipartisan agreement will help us address many of the major challenges we face at home and abroad: from COVID-19, to the vicious and immoral attack on Ukraine, to the need to lower costs for hardworking American families.”
Though the Ukraine aid is a small fraction of the overall bill, the money countering a Russian blitzkrieg that’s devastated parts of the country and prompted Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II ensured the measure would pass with robust bipartisan support.
“The brave, freedom-loving people of Ukraine and our allies in the region will receive urgently needed investments to fight Vladimir Putin and the Russians’ illegal and immoral invasion,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote.
President Joe Biden initially requested $6.4 billion for Ukraine aid last month, which increased to $10 billion for military, humanitarian and economic aid last week. Democratic and Republican backing was so staunch that the figure grew to $12 billion Monday and $13.6 billion just a day later.
“We’re going to support them against tyranny, oppression, violent acts of subjugation,” Biden said at the White House.
Party leaders planned to whip the 2,741-page measure through the House on Wednesday and the Senate by week’s end, though that chamber’s exact timing was unclear. Lawmakers were spurred by the urgency of helping Ukraine before Russia’s military might makes it too late.
They also faced a Friday deadline to approve the government-wide spending measure or face a weekend election-year federal shutdown. As a backstop against delays, the House planned to pass a bill Wednesday keeping agencies afloat through March 15.
“We thank President Biden for his bold vision and all the members of the Appropriations Committee and the Republican leadership for working together on this historic legislation,” Schumer and Pelosi wrote in a statement. “We hope to pass this critical bipartisan legislation in both Chambers before the Continuing Resolution expires this Friday.”
Over $4 billion of the Ukraine aid was to help the country and Eastern European nations cope with the 2 million refugees who’ve already fled the fighting. Another $6.7 billion was for the deployment of U.S. troops and equipment to the region and to transfer American military items to Ukraine and U.S. allies, and there was economic aid and money to enforce economic sanctions against Russia as well.
“War in Europe has focused the energies of Congress to getting something done and getting it done fast,” said Leader Schumer.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on Tuesday said the measure would provide loan guarantees to Poland to help it replace aircraft it is sending Ukraine. McConnell described working with House Democrats has “been like pulling teeth” to get them agree to some of the defense spending, but added: “It’s an important step. It needs to be passed. It needs to be passed quickly.”
The bipartisan rallying behind the Ukraine aid was just one manifestation of Congress’ eagerness to help the beleaguered country, though not all of it has been harmonious.
Republicans accused Biden of moving too slowly to help Ukraine and NATO allies and to impose sanctions against Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Democrats countered that time was needed to bring along European allies that rely heavily on Russian energy sources. And a bipartisan push to ban Russian oil imports had become nearly unstoppable before Biden announced Tuesday that he would do that on his own.
The huge overall bill was stocked with victories for both parties, including, notably, a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
“This historic legislation will carry major bipartisan legislation that has been in the making for years,” the Democratic leaders wrote in a statement. “The Violence Against Women Act, expired for too many years, will finally be reauthorized.”
For Democrats, it provides $730 billion for domestic programs, 6.7% more than last year, the biggest boost in four years. Republicans won $782 billion for defense, 5.6% over last year’s levels.
In contrast, Biden’s 2022 budget last spring proposed a 16% increase for domestic programs and less than 2% more for defense — numbers that were doomed from the start thanks to Democrats’ slender congressional majorities.
The bill was also fueled by large numbers of hometown projects for both parties’ lawmakers, which Congress had banned since 2011 but were revived this year. The spending — once called earmarks, now dubbed community projects — includes money for courthouses in Connecticut and Tennessee and repairs to a post office in West Virginia. And it names a federal building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, after Sen. Richard Shelby, the state’s senior GOP senator, a chief author of the bill who’s retiring after six terms.
Democrats won $15.6 billion for a fresh round of spending for vaccines, testing and treatments for COVID-19, including $5 billion for fighting the pandemic around the world. That was below Biden’s $22.5 billion request.
“This makes it far more likely that if and when a new variant hits, the country will be able to maintain this new normal,” Schumer and Pelosi wrote.
Republicans said they’d forced Democrats to pay for the entire amount by pulling back money from COVID-19 relief bills enacted previously. Much of the money was to go to help states and businesses cope with the toll of the pandemic.
There’s added money for child care, job training, economic development in poorer communities and more generous Pell grants for low-income undergraduates. Public health and biomedical research would get increases, including $194 million for Biden’s “Cancer Moonshot” effort to cure the disease.
“This Omnibus will increase funding for key domestic priorities, including a $400 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award, the establishment of President Biden’s new cancer research initiative known as ARPA-H, and so much more,” the Democratic leaders wrote in a statement. “And enacting the omnibus unlocks more federal funding under our Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – bringing transformational investments to roads, bridges, transit, water systems, airports, broadband and more across America. It will also invest in bipartisan Community Projects for the first time in over a decade.”
Citizenship and Immigration Services would get funds to reduce huge backlogs of people trying to enter the U.S. There would be fresh efforts to bolster renewable energy and curb pollution, with some of that aimed specifically at communities of color.
There is added funding to build affordable housing. And the measure distributes billions of dollars initially provided by the bipartisan infrastructure bill enacted last year for road, rail and airport projects.
The bill “delivers transformative federal investments to help lower the cost of living for working families, create American jobs, and provide a lifeline for the vulnerable,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn.
The bill renews programs protecting women against domestic violence and requires many infrastructure operators to report significant cyber attacks and ransomware demands to federal authorities. The Defense Department would have to report on extremist ideologies within the ranks.
The measure retains strict decades-old curbs against using federal money for nearly all abortions. It has $300 million in military assistance for Ukraine and $300 million to help nearby countries like the Baltic nations and Poland. Service members would get 2.7% pay raises, and Navy shipbuilding would get a boost in a counter to China.
It “rejects liberal policies and effectively addresses Republican priorities,” said Shelby, top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Since the government’s fiscal year began last Oct. 1, agencies have been running on spending levels approved during Donald Trump’s final weeks in the White House. Congress has approved three short-term bills since then keeping agency doors open.
