US lawmakers unveil bill to keep government funded, avert shutdown

By Moira Warburton

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. congressional negotiators on Sunday unveiled a bill to fund the government through the rest of the fiscal year that began in October, as lawmakers faced yet another threat of a partial shutdown if they fail to act by Friday.

The bill sets a discretionary spending level of $1.66 trillion for fiscal 2024, a spokesman for Democratic Senate Majority Leaders Chuck Schumer said. It fills in the details of an agreement that Schumer and Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson set in early January.

Lawmakers last week passed the fourth stopgap measure since Oct. 1 to keep the government funded, and set themselves two quick deadlines to act, with funding for a part of the government including the Department of Transportation and the Food and Drug Administration running out on March 8 and most other federal agencies partially shutting down on March 22.

The bill "maintains the aggressive investments Democrats secured for American families, American workers, and America’s national defense," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement.

While the top leaders of Congress have agreed on the deal, it still faces some challenges, notably opposition by hardline Republicans in the House, who have repeatedly called for sharp spending cuts and typically do not vote for spending bills.

That hardline energy, which led to the ouster of Johnson's predecessor Kevin McCarthy, has also gained steam in the traditionally more staid Senate, leading to top Republican Mitch McConnell's decision last week to step down from his leadership role at the end of this year.

House Republicans were touting the bill as a win, although with a deeply divided caucus they had little negotiating power. The bill includes a 10% cut in funding to the Environmental Protection Agency, 7% to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and 6% to the FBI.

"Non-defense spending is relatively flat, and in this time of significant inflation, that's a big deal," a House Republican leadership aide said on Sunday. "We made the Democrats eat a lot of their own priorities as offsets, just to get to level funding."

Schumer meanwhile emphasized that the bill fully funds a health program for low-income families, "makes critical investments in our infrastructure, and strengthens programs that benefit services for our veterans."

The ongoing brinkmanship and the nation's $34 trillion debt has unnerved credit agencies. Moody's downgraded its financial outlook on the United States from "stable" to "negative" in November, citing large fiscal deficits and increasing political polarization, though Fitch on Friday affirmed a "stable" outlook.

The House will have to vote on the bill first before the Senate can take up the package before Friday, Schumer said.

(Reporting by Moira Warburton; Editing by Scott Malone and Diane Craft)