(NewsInsights.org)—The House passed a spending package worth more than $465 billion on Wednesday, March 6, averting a partial government shutdown in an election year. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) helped hammer out compromises that allowed the bills to pass, but some critics suggest that Johnson wanted to defund law enforcement in the bundle.
The first set of appropriation bills dealt with government agencies, including Veterans Affairs, the Interior, Justice, Agriculture, Transportation, Environmental Protection, and Health and Human Services, among others. The far-right Freedom Caucus has exerted considerable pressure on Johnson to cut discretionary spending and reduce the deficit.
Johnson: We also advanced cuts to some of the agencies that have been turned against the American people. We are going to cut 3% from DOJ, 7% from the ATF, 6% from the FBI, and 10% from the EPA. pic.twitter.com/RzKKPiLD73
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 6, 2024
Additionally, Johnson addressed his caucus ahead of the vote on Wednesday, telling them Republicans had successfully negotiated “cuts to some of the agencies that we believe are really overreaching.” He added that the agencies had begun working at cross-purposes to the good of the American people, citing the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) as examples.
Accordingly, he and others insisted on budgetary cuts for those agencies. The cuts include:
- 3% of the DOJ budget
- 7% of the ATF budget
- 6% of the FBI budget
- 10% of the EPA budget
Yet some political critics characterized the cuts as “defunding the police” and suggested it was thinly veiled retaliation based more on the House Republicans’ support of former President Donald Trump than their interest in reducing the deficit.
Mike Johnson: “We cut agencies that have been turned against the American people. We are going to cut 3% from DOJ, 6% from the FBI..”
He frames funding cuts for law enforcement as being pro-American instead of as pro-Trump.
pic.twitter.com/m401RILrLu— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) March 6, 2024
Ron Filipkowski, editor-in-chief of the Meidas Touch Network, posted his sarcastic response on X, formerly Twitter. In an election year where 63% of Americans expressed concern that the US crime situation was “either extremely or very serious” in a recent Gallup poll, the pundit questions the political wisdom of hamstringing law enforcement.
However, left-leaning critic Steve Benin of MSNBC pointed out that the cuts weren’t as deep or “dramatic” as alarmists first claimed. He argued, “Democrats likely would’ve balked” and rejected the deal if Johnson and his associates had cut too deep.
The package progressed to the Senate, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) expected to resolve any issues and send the bills to President Joe Biden’s desk ahead of the shutdown deadline on Saturday, March 9. If passed, the package will fund the affected departments through September, the end of fiscal year 2024.
A second set of appropriation bills remains in the House. Johnson must address those before the March 22 deadline or face another partial government shutdown.
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