Congress is expected later this week to take up and approve a package of six spending bills to fund half the government through the fall, after months of bitter negotiations as Republicans pressed for cuts and conservative policies.
The $460 billion legislation would fund a slew of government agencies and programs, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Justice Department and veterans affairs. It must pass in order to avert a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.
Top lawmakers are still negotiating spending for the other half of the government for the rest of the year, including for the Pentagon, that Congress must pass by March 22 to avert a lapse in funding for those programs.
Here is what to know about the 1,050-page bill on track for passage this week.
Republicans failed to win any major policy changes.
The funding levels adhere to the debt limit and spending deal negotiated last year by President Biden and the speaker at the time, Kevin McCarthy, keeping spending on domestic programs essentially flat — even as funding for veterans’ programs continues to grow — while allowing military spending to increase slightly.
Ultimately, lawmakers jettisoned most of House Republicans’ most sweeping and divisive demands, including blocking an increase in funding for nutrition assistance programs for low-income women and children, and halting the implementation of new rules to allow greater access to abortion medication.
But Speaker Mike Johnson and his negotiators were able to secure a number of smaller demands, including cuts to the E.P.A. and the F.B.I.
