Congress
Congressional leaders reached an overarching agreement Wednesday to boost military and non-defense budgets.
“This is a good bipartisan breakthrough. I think we can get us an omnibus now,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Wednesday afternoon. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
By Jennifer Scholtes
02/09/2022 01:46 PM EST
Updated: 02/09/2022 05:03 PM EST
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Congressional leaders reached an overarching agreement Wednesday to boost military and non-defense budgets, paving the way for a comprehensive deal to fund the government into the fall.
The accord is a crucial breakthrough that’s expected to lead to enactment of a sweeping 12-bill spending bundle in the next few weeks, following months of tense cross-party negotiations. Appropriations leaders won’t divulge the funding totals they struck, and contentious policy debates may yet upend negotiations on final bill text. But leaders in both parties applauded the framework agreement.
“This is a good bipartisan breakthrough. I think we can get us an omnibus now,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) said Wednesday afternoon about the prospects of passing a catch-all package to fund the government into the fall, known as an “omnibus.”
Democrats are seeking to finally override the funding levels carried over from the spending package signed into law in the last weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency, while Republicans are fighting for a military budget increase far above the less than 2 percent increase President Joe Biden requested.