At 1:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, March 9, House leadership officially unveiled its $1.5 trillion fiscal year (FY) 2022-2023 omnibus spending package, including emergency aid for Ukraine and COVID-19 relief.
Once the nearly 2,700-page spending bill was released, chaos ensued. More than a dozen Democratic lawmakers objected to a deal struck by Democrat and GOP leadership without their knowledge that re-purposed nearly $16 billion in previously allocated COVID-19 relief — originally intended to pay for COVID-19 supplies and treatments. After hours of in-fighting among the Democratic Party, Democrat leadership eventually pulled the COVID-19 aid provision entirely from the final package with the hopes to address it at a later date.
To ensure the bill cleared the House, Democrat leaders split the spending package into two separate votes: defense spending and non-defense — Ukrainian emergency aid — to appease more progressive members who oppose increases to national defense spending measures.
Finally, around 10:00 p.m. Wednesday evening, Democrats were able to pass the FY spending deal along with a separate four-day continuing resolution to avoid a government shutdown set to take place on March 11th.
Thursday evening, the Senate cleared the spending package for President Biden’s signature. The bill should be enacted by or before March 15th
– Kody Bessent