Debt limit package passes House, heads to Senate – JP

Through a combination of caps on discretionary spending, rescissions of mostly pandemic spending and other changes, the package would save an estimated $1.5 trillion over a decade, and up to $2.1 trillion if Congress abides by additional caps from fiscal 2026 to fiscal 2029 that are not enforceable by a sequester, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

In fiscal 2024, the statutory caps would raise defense spending to $886 billion and lower nondefense spending to $704 billion, not including emergency spending and other funding outside the caps. Spending would be allowed to grow by 1 percent in fiscal 2025.

The caps would technically cut overall base discretionary spending to $1.59 trillion in 2024, from $1.602 trillion this year. However, actual nondefense appropriations next year may roughly equal spending this year. That is because negotiators agreed to adjustments that are not contained in the legislation, which will plow back some of the rescinded pandemic aid and some IRS enforcement money to make up for cuts in discretionary programs.

‘Lopsided’ deal

House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., opposed the bill, arguing the measure’s side agreement to boost nondefense spending may not materialize while military budget boosts are locked in. “I can live with a painful compromise, but I cannot accept one so lopsided,” DeLauro said in a statement.

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., hasn’t commented publicly on the legislation since it was released. But according to Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., Murray told her colleagues at the caucus lunch on Wednesday that it could make the appropriations process more difficult.