The House raced Wednesday to finish work on a roughly $1.2 trillion government funding bill before a weekend deadline, as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) touted conservative policy wins to his restive GOP conference in hopes of smoothing the way for passage before a shutdown that would hit just after midnight Saturday. But the prospect for speedy Senate action looked shaky, which could drag the legislation past the wire.

A deal reached earlier this week between Johnson, President Biden and Senate Democrats included Republican priorities such as a ban funding the U.N. relief agency for Palestine and increases to spending on security at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to two people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

“I think the final product is something that we were able to achieve a lot of key provisions in and wins and move in a direction that we want even with our tiny, historically small majority,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday.

Both chambers are expected to approve the spending package, but those votes could still come too late to prevent a brief partial government shutdown early in the weekend. Lawmakers spent so long in negotiations that Johnson may have to bypass certain House rules to force the legislation across the finish line, or risk being saddled with the political fallout of a shutdown, however brief.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said Wednesday that he planned to introduce an amendment to cut spending when the measure reaches the upper chamber, likely slowing the process further. He told The Washington Post that forcing a debate on what he considered to be excessive spending was worth inducing a government shutdown.

Congressional leadership hoped to publish legislative text later Wednesday, though that could spill into Thursday, many privately acknowledge, narrowing the dwindling options for keeping the government open. The measure would roll together six annual spending bills, or appropriations, into one larger package. Congress earlier in March passed, and Biden signed, another set of six funding bills worth $459 billion.

“If Rand Paul is insisting on exercising his ability to block things, the consequence of that will almost certainly be a shutdown,” a visibly perturbed Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) huffed Wednesday.

The legislation comes staggeringly late in Congress’s budget calendar. The 2024 fiscal year is already half over. But Congress has not passed all 12 of its appropriations bills on time since 1997, according to Pew Research Center, often relying instead on stopgap funding bills called continuing resolutions, or CRs.

If Congress can’t finish work by Saturday’s deadline, yet still acts before Monday morning, the effects of a shutdown might be minimal: Many federal workers at agencies that are unfunded would be off for the weekend anyway. But if a closure goes longer, more than half of IRS employees would face furloughs at the height of tax filing season. Active-duty service members – about 1.3 million – and Border Patrol officers would remain on the job without pay. So would Transportation Security Administration screeners, many of whom called in sick in protest after a previous shutdown dragged on for weeks, sparking nationwide travel delays.

“No one should want a shutdown. No one should cause a shutdown. Let’s pull together and get this done,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the chief Senate Democratic negotiator, said. “Please excuse the former preschool teacher in me, but here’s the lesson I hope everyone learned when we pass these last six bills: When we listen to each other, and to the American people instead of the loudest voices on the far right, we can work together, and actually pass meaningful bills that help people back home.”

The bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security emerged as the biggest obstacle for the appropriations package, turning into a larger fight between the White House and Johnson over operations to secure the southern border and larger immigration policy.

The legislation would increase funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is already facing a budget shortfall, to support roughly 42,000 beds in detention facilities, and funds 22,000 Border Patrol agents, the people said.

A DHS official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive law enforcement information, said the bed capacity increase would not necessarily mean ICE could take on more detainees, because the agency has already been holding more people than the 34,000 beds for which it was funded.

DHS officials anticipate a seasonal increase in illegal crossings this spring, and ICE may not have enough funding to ramp up deportations, the official said. A second DHS official warned the agency would still likely need additional funding – resources for which the Biden administration asked in the fall.

The Homeland Security bill would cut U.S. contributions by 20 percent to nongovernmental organizations that provide services for new arrivals to the country. Lawmakers who want to restrict immigration argue the nonprofit groups incentivize illegal crossings by giving migrants a soft landing in the U.S. and facilitating their access to legal assistance and jobs.

Northern cities, including New York, have taken steps in recent months to make it harder for migrants to remain in city-funded hotel rooms and shelters on a long-term basis.

Democrats claimed wins because the DHS legislation doesn’t fund a border wall or reinstate some harsh Trump-era immigration restrictions, the people said.

But Johnson and the GOP also claimed achievements in the State Department funding bill with a 12-month prohibition on federal funding for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), multiple people familiar with the agreement confirmed. Israel has accused some of the agency’s employees of involvement in the Oct. 7 attacks that killed some 1,200 Israelis and saw hundreds more taken hostage in the Gaza Strip by terrorist group Hamas. A U.S. intelligence assessment has reportedly verified some of Israel’s claims about UNRWA.

The legislation does not prevent the U.S. from routing aid to Palestine through other groups, the people said. Humanitarian assistance for civilians suffering in the ongoing war has become a key division between Democrats and Republicans. Liberals have pushed Biden to more aggressively send aid into Gaza and pressure Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to free up entry points for assistance. Some Democrats have pushed Biden and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to condition U.S. military aid to Israel on the country’s conduct of the war.

“To me, that’s a ridiculous concept, that somehow we should be conditioning aid to Israel and yet have no conditions and full funding for UNRWA,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (Fla.), the top Republican negotiator on the State Department bill, told The Post on Tuesday.

The bill also includes a 6 percent cut to foreign aid programs, already a minuscule slice of federal spending, and a largely symbolic Republican win that prohibits nonofficial U.S. flags from flying atop American embassies. GOP lawmakers had hoped to use that provision, a slightly narrower version of which had previously been in place, to prevent Biden-nominated officials from displaying LGBTQ Pride flags at official locations at U.S. diplomatic outposts.

(c) 2024, The Washington Post · Jacob Bogage