Government funding bill will run through March, include $100B in disaster aid

Pieces of a bipartisan effort to prevent a government shutdown during the holiday season are beginning to come into focus, including a March end-date and $100 billion in disaster aid.

GOP leadership briefed Republicans on Tuesday morning on some of the details of the forthcoming legislation. Text of the measure has yet to be released.

“Bipartisan work is ongoing. We’re almost there,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said at his weekly press conference Tuesday.

The continuing resolution (CR) would keep government funding at current levels through March 14 and contains roughly $100 in disaster aid, including help for communities hard-hit by hurricanes Helene and Milton, lawmakers said Tuesday morning.

Johnson said the bill will also include $10 billion in aid for farmers. Agricultural aid had emerged as a key sticking point in recent days and the agreement comes after some Republicans threatened to vote against the stopgap measure if it did not include economic assistance for farm families.

“It was intended to be, and it was until recently here, a very simple, very clean [continuing resolution],” Johnson told reporters after the conference meeting, “[a] stopgap funding measure to get us into next year when we have unified government.”

But Johnson said “acts of God,” such as hurricanes, required disaster aid and other additions to the package.

Negotiators say the coming bill is expected to devote a chunk of pages to authorizations. That includes a one-year extension of the 2018 farm bill, and an extension of the National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP’s) authorization.

“I think you're gonna see hundreds upon hundreds, upon hundreds, upon hundreds of pages that is not CR, it's authorizing,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), a spending cardinal, said.

Members have also said the measure will include some lines on healthcare, including changes dealing with how pharmacy benefit managers operate.

Additional changes have also been discussed to allow year-round E15 ethanol sales.

“There's a seasonal requirement, and so there's a seasonal limitation on when it can be used. So there's a mandate that some of it is used now,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) said. “It's simply permitting that stations could sell it year round, instead of limiting it to part of the year.”

The House is expected to move first on the CR this week.

However, there’s been pushback from some Republicans in both chambers about being jammed with a significant funding plan before going home as more details emerge about the potential price tag.

“The appetite to risk shutting the government down is not there. This is the playbook that they've used for a long time, pretty successful,” Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, said.

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