Congressional leaders have announced a $1.66 trillion agreement on overall spending levels for the government’s current fiscal year. They’re racing once again to avoid a partial government shutdown later this month.
The tentative deal does include some spending cuts, although not nearly enough for some conservatives who are concerned about the consequences of America’s skyrocketing national debt.
In a letter to colleagues on Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said the agreement would secure $16 billion in additional spending cuts from the previous agreement brokered by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden and is about $30 billion less than what the Senate was considering.
The agreement calls for $886 billion in defense funding. It would provide $772 billion in domestic, non-defense spending, including $69 billion called for in a side deal to the debt ceiling bill that McCarthy had reached with the White House last May.
“This represents the most favorable budget agreement Republicans have achieved in over a decade,” Johnson wrote.
Biden said the agreement “moves us one step closer to preventing a needless government shutdown and protecting important national priorities.”
“It reflects the funding levels that I negotiated with both parties and signed into law last spring,” Biden
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