U.S. Senate Passes Giant $1.7 Trillion Spending Bill With Ukraine Aid, Election Change

Passage of the bill funneling $47 billion toward the effort to help Ukraine’s defense against Russia came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed the US Congress in his first trip outside his war-torn homeland since the invasion began. The measure adds to the more than $65 billion already appropriated this year to address the conflict. 

“Now is not the time to take our foot off the gas when it comes to helping Ukraine. The single worst thing we can do right now is give Putin any signal that we are wavering in our commitment to defend democracy in Ukraine and around the globe,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor Wednesday. 

The bill, which funds government operations for the rest of fiscal 2023, passed 68-29 and now heads to the House where passage is expected in advance of a Dec. 24 government shutdown. House Republican leaders are urging their members to oppose the bill, arguing they should be allowed to write their own funding plan and enact deep spending cuts in January when they take over the majority. 

The Senate was able to pass the bill just days after the 4,155-page bill was released publicly in the dead of night, despite an outcry from a group of Senate conservatives.  

“Is our national security more protected by spending more on the military or is our national security actually more threatened by incurring more debt? I would argue the latter,” Kentucky Republican Rand Paul argued on the Senate floor. 

Conservatives were allowed to offer a series of amendments to cut spending and strip out earmarked pet projects, all of which failed. In exchange they consented to expedite the final vote.

A late Wednesday delay over a GOP amendment to extend Title 42 powers to expel migrants was resolved when Democrats consented to a vote on it. They then offered their own plan to extend Title 42 coupled with billions more in border funding. Both amendments failed, with swing-state Democrats having the political cover to oppose the first by supporting the second.

The Senate amended the bill to add provisions requiring employers to make accommodations for pregnant workers. Amendments were also adopted to add $1 billion to the 9/11 victims fund and to expedite fee increases for large corporate mergers. Another amendment approved would transfer proceeds from selling seized assets of Russian oligarchs to Ukraine. 

Passage of the bill represents a victory both for Democrats, who feared spending cuts with a GOP House next year, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who was eager to secure funding increases for the military and Ukraine before the strife of divided government makes both a remote possibility next year.  The military budget receives a $76 billion, 10% boost over current levels, much to the benefit of defense contractors. Taiwan receives $2 billion for weapons purchases, which is likely to anger China. 

Funding Compromises

Democrats and Republicans cut a deal on the spending bill after Democrats pared back their demands for domestic agency increases and both sides used some budget gimmicks to hide other increases in a disaster relief emergency portion of the bill. The defense level of $858 billion was agreed to early by both sides. The domestic increase ranges from $773 billion to about $800 billion depending on how you count the gimmicks. 

The deal was also greased by more than 7,000 pet projects from lawmakers—$15 billion in earmarks—which returned to appropriations bills earlier this year for the first time in more than a decade and have proved popular with both parties. 

The compromise forced Democrats to accept less funding than they likely would have gotten had they retained the House in the midterm elections. There is no funding boost for Covid-19 efforts and no big boost to process migrants at the southern US border. The bill has far less for climate change initiatives than Democrats had wanted — just $1 billion out of the $11 billion Biden had pledged to spend. There were no increases to Title 10 family planning funds, despite a push by progressive activists, and the research innovation hubs program touted as part of this summer’s CHIPS and Science Act receives just $500 million out of the $10 billion over five years envisioned. An attempt to green-light tax-payer funded abortions also was dropped. 

On the other hand, Democrats were able to funnel multi-billion-dollar increases for veteran’s health care and to the home heating program in the wake of skyrocketing fuel costs. They were able to increase funding for the National Labor Relations Board for the first time in a dozen years.  The bill has $27 billion in emergency funds to address recent hurricane and wildfires disasters. 

Policy Riders

As a must-pass piece of legislation, the spending bill is carrying a host of unrelated policy provisions. These include the Electoral Count Act, which changes how electoral college votes are tabulated after a presidential election with an aim to prevent a repeat of Jan. 6, 2021. It clarifies that the vice president has no power to overturn electoral votes, as former president Donald Trump pressed Mike Pence to do. 

Of interest to asset managers, the bill would enact changes to policies related to tax-shield retirement accounts aimed at boosting savings in 401k plans and allowing workers more time to delay mandatory withdrawals. 

The bill would ban the downloading of the social media app TikTok onto government phones and would extend a deadline for Boeing to upgrade its 737 cockpits for additional safety. 

In a victory for the Maine delegation and lobster fishers, the bill would halt regulations meant to protect the right whale. 

A host of other provisions were excluded from the final deal and they will be left for Congress to tackle next year. These include the extension of corporate tax breaks, a renewal of an expanded child tax credit, permission for banks to process marijuana transactions, farm worker visa changes and changes to cocaine sentencing guideline. 

The bill is a final legacy item for outgoing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, as well as Senate Appropriations Chair Patrick Leahy and top Senate Appropriations Republican Richard Shelby, both of whom are retiring. The occasion is marked in the bill with the naming of a federal building in San Francisco for Pelosi, a Lake Champlain project for Leahy and an FBI building for Shelby. 

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