House approves $259.5B spending package (Includes Interior & Ag)

The House on Friday approved a $259.5 billion four-bill package of spending bills for the 2021 fiscal year. The package included the bills for state and foreign operations; agriculture; interior and environment; and military construction and veterans affairs. The legislative package passed in a largely party-line 224-189 vote. Seven Democrats and the chamber's sole Independent joined every Republican in voting against the measure. Lawmakers rejected deep cuts proposed by President Trump to the State Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The foreign operations bill provides billions in foreign assistance to countries such as Israel, Egypt and Ukraine and money for counternarcotics operations in a number of Latin American countries. The agriculture bill includes over $1 billion to expand rural broadband, funds a slew of nutritional assistance programs and would give the Federal Drug Administration mandatory recall authority for prescription and over-the-counter drugs. The interior bill also funds arts and humanities programs and museums, including funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, which Trump sought to eliminate in his budget. It also funds the Smithsonian Institution, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The package touches on a variety of hot-button political issues. It would ensure funding for the World Health Organization, a body Trump vowed to cut ties and funding for, blaming it for the spread of the coronavirus. It would block the “Mexico City policy,” which prevents U.S. funds from flowing to foreign aid and health organizations that support abortion rights. It would block a controversial Trump administration rule that scientists and advocacy groups say would make it harder for the EPA to use some forms of commonly-accepted science in its rulemaking process. Finally, it would block Trump from using military construction funds to build his signature border wall, and refuse to backfill accounts he emptied to fund the wall using emergency powers. Over the course of two days, the House adopted amendments that would block Trump's use of emergency authority to keep meat plants open as essential services during the pandemic, ban government contracts with any of Trump's businesses, and prevent drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge...MORE