BREAKING: House Passes $1.2 Trillion Spending Package to Avert Shutdown

The House of Representatives passed a package of spending bills totaling $1.2 trillion Friday morning in an attempt to avert a government shutdown. The bills now await action in the Senate, and if passed Congress will have kicked the fiscal responsibility can down the road, until the fall.

As usual, a huge amount of pork and objectionable programs are contained in the bill, and Democrats are claiming victory. The bills also contain some tiny increases in spending related to combating illegal immigration meant to placate Republicans:

To win over support from Republicans, Johnson has also touted some of the spending increases secured for about 8,000 more detention beds for migrants awaiting their immigration proceedings or removal from the country. That’s about a 24% increase from current levels. Also, GOP leadership highlighted more money to hire about 2,000 Border Patrol agents.

Numerous congressional Republicans were not placated, though.

As RedState's Joe Cunningham was one of the first to report, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate the chair over the bills' passage.

Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) called the bill a win for the D.C. Cartel and not the American people.

Once again, the D.C. Cartel has unified against the American people. We are now on the hook for another $1.2 TRILLION in spending.

We call it the uniparty for this reason exactly, not even a majority of the majority agreed with this bill. pic.twitter.com/lbeCUIO4nC
— Matt Rosendale (@RepRosendale) March 22, 2024

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) accused Speaker Mike Johnson of being owned by Democrats, saying, "it’s clear that the Democrats own the speaker’s gavel," while Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) said:

“We told the people we were going to have a smaller government, and we told the people we were going to secure the border. It’s a sad day.”

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) left no room for misunderstanding about his position, calling himself "a hell no on this bill" and saying, "The bottom line is that this is a complete and utter surrender."

Noting that the end result was similar to an agreement former Speaker Kevin McCarthy had with President Joe Biden, Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said, “People were living in a dream world thinking, ‘Well, we’re going to something different than what McCarthy had an agreement with the president on."