What’s in the new spending bill the Senate is racing to pass to avoid a shutdown

Geoff Bennett:

Funding the government is down to the wire. Senate lawmakers are cutting this close, running up a midnight deadline to pass a major spending bill and prevent a partial government shutdown.

Lisa Desjardins has been following the latest.

So, Lisa, here we are again, friend, on the brink of another federal government shutdown. The most pressing question, are they going to get this done?

Lisa Desjardins:

Let's take a look at our U.S. Senate floor right now, shall we? Here's what lawmakers are doing, who don't usually meet on Friday, by the way. There they are taking a vote. Just a few hours ago, it wasn't clear they were going to be doing this.

They have just begun, finally made a deal over how to actually vote for this spending package that would avoid a partial shutdown. So, basically, to sum up where we are, it looks like we will get this spending package through the Congress, probably in the next couple of hours or so, just barely in time for President Biden to sign it before midnight.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, so walk us through the spending deal that the Senate is debating tonight.

Lisa Desjardins:

Right. There's a lot to talk about here. It's significant in a few ways, but let me give you the broad outline first.

This is significantly large. It is $460, a little bit more than that, billion dollars. It covers about a quarter of discretionary funding that Congress controls. We're talking about a lot of agencies, Agriculture, Energy, Housing, Interior — that's your national parks, by the way — Department of Justice, Veterans.

One thing I want to point out, it fully funds WIC. That is a program for Women and Infants and Children. Millions more mothers and children will get benefits because of this deal. Overall, though, it holds most funding flat for federal government. That's something conservatives want. And that's one reason it's significant.

We have seen huge increases in spending in recent years. We still have a deficit problem, but this at least cuts that down. One reason it does that, spending cuts. Here's who's getting cut in this deal. The FBI, a 6 percent cut, the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms 7 percent cut.

The EPA, now, Republicans have bragged about getting a 10 percent cut out of this deal. Eh. You know, we like to do the math. The truth is, it's really a 4 percent cut for most of the EPA once you take out the Superfund, so a lot in here.

Geoff Bennett:

And this bill has also received attention because of a provision about guns and veterans. What's the controversy there?

Lisa Desjardins:

Right. I want to talk about this. This is a provision that has been hotly debated, but was put in here as a compromise. Conservatives wanted it.

Right now, let's look at what the policy is for our veterans when it comes to these sort of guns. Veterans who are declared mentally incompetent by the VA are referred to the Department of Justice. The Department of Justice then puts them on the list where they will be blocked from gun ownership. That's the current policy, but this deal would reverse that.

Now, I have to tell you, of course, this is very controversial. Veterans especially are a group that we know have higher rates of suicide, has been rising. And they are more likely to use firearms in their — if they do decide — if they do turn to suicide.

Now, this is an instance where we talk to advocates on both sides who just see this provision differently.

Autrey James, The American Legion:

Well, a veteran goes, gets their benefits. They may or may not be having any mental health issues, but they're put in a position where their guns can be taken away.

And many times, that alone, the idea that that can happen, is what stops veterans from either going to the VA or stops them from asking for mental health from the VA.

Vanessa Gonzalez, Giffords:

This is a system that has been in place for 30 years already. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. No government system is perfect. But it is a system that has been working. And so again, to the point that this was unnecessarily reckless, we're going to stand behind that because it just didn't need to be touched.

And, again, the fallacies that this is taking something away from veterans is not conscientious.

Lisa Desjardins:

So what you heard there is, on the one side, people saying, listen, veterans are being dinged for perhaps minor financial incompetency and their rights being taken away. But on the other, you're hearing the danger from those gun control groups.

And one issue in particular that's been brought up here is that shooting in Lewiston, Maine, in October that Laura Barron-Lopez covered, in particular, 18 people there were killed by a veteran. And it has been found just this week by Boston University. They looked at his brain and they found damage consistent with grenade injuries, kind of heavy impact. His job was being a grenade trainer.

And they have found that that — the conclusion of the report was that that impacted his symptoms. So that was a veteran who was not flagged and was able to get a firearm; 18 people were killed. So this is right in the middle of that debate. Right now, though, Congress is deciding to release — take out this restraint on veterans, at least for the foreseeable future.

Geoff Bennett:

OK.

Well, meantime, Lisa, it looks like we have another funding deadline just a few weeks away. And that's going to include more hard-to-agree-upon issues like border security. So how is this all shaping up?

Lisa Desjardins:

I know. I don't love ending this on this note because we have all been through quite a week, Super Tuesday, State of the Union last night.

But people have to be aware that a much harder deadline is coming up on March 22. That includes, as you know, the defense spending contentions possibly, health, border immigration, all of that wrapped up in this much harder deadline March 22. I don't know if the lawmakers will be able to come out with an agreement or not. They are optimistic, but we will see.

So we will be back here talking about it.

Geoff Bennett:

All right, Lisa Desjardins, thanks, as always. Appreciate it.