Federal agencies would be financed for another month under bipartisan legislation approved by the House on Tuesday, the latest emblem of Congress' persistent inability to finish its budget work on time.
Senate passage, expected perhaps next week, will send the bill to President Joe Biden for his signature. Without that the government would deplete its spending authority on Feb. 18 and have to shutter most of its doors, an election-year embarrassment that neither party wants, and it will not happen.
The bill includes $350 million to address leaking military fuel tanks that have contaminated drinking water near Hawaii's Pearl Harbor, and nearly 6,000 people have complained of illness. The military has moved around 4,000 families into hotels and flown in water treatment systems from the U.S. mainland.
Tuesday's House vote was 272-162. All but one voting Democrat supported the bill, but it was opposed by more than 3 in 4 Republicans, who often use such votes to portray themselves as fiscal conservatives.
The short-term measure would fund government at last year’s levels through March 11. Congressional leaders say they hope that will give bargainers time to reach agreement on overall spending totals, and then write the 12 bills that spell out details on how agencies will spend that money.
Those bills finance everything from the armed forces to programs for education, the environment, veterans and public health. In addition, a portion of the 10-year, $1 trillion infrastructure bill — about $14 billion this year — can't be committed to projects until Congress approves a spending bill formally providing the money.
The government's budget year runs from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30. It's been many years since Congress has finished all its budget bills by Oct. 1 because of partisan fights over priorities.
“No one wins" when Congress has to rely on short-term legislation to finance agencies piecemeal, said Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., who chairs the House Appropriations Committee. The top Republican on that panel, Rep. Kay Granger of Texas, said that while no one wants another stopgap bill, “the alternative is much worse" — a reference to a federal shutdown.
Markets were pointing to a higher open to kick off the third trading week in November. It comes as stocks come off a losing week in reaction to October's consumer price index--which showed inflation at its highest point in over 30 years.
Ryan Detrick, Chief Market Strategist for LPL Financial joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
Harvard Business School Professor Ranjay Gulati joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the massive challenge the Biden Administration faces in ensuring projects in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill are completed on time and on budget.
Jill is joined by Baker Machado to talk all things infrastructure: where will the money go and who’s in charge? Plus, Sesame Street has its first Asian-American muppet. And a trailer for the trailer for Spiderman. Huh?
In this week's Cheddar Changemakers, Megan Pratz spoke with a 16-year-old climate activist Sarah Goody. She is the founder of a youth-led climate action group 'Climate NOW.'
We toss around the term "democracy is under attack" quite often without thinking too much, but one organization is actually stepping up to do something about it. The Fairness Project is a group that funds and organizes state ballot measures across the country. It has used ballot initiatives on campaigns aimed at expanding Medicaid, adding more paid time off, and raising minimum wage. It recently launched a new direct democracy campaign to fight back against attempts to make ballot measures inaccessible.
Kelly Hall, executive director of The Fairness Project, joined Cheddar Politics to discuss more about the group's efforts to push for economic and social justice, avoiding partisan gridlock.
Doug Flynn, Certified Financial Planner and Co-Founder of Flynn Zito Capital Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where he says he believes the news of the infrastructure bill was already priced into the market and that inflation continues to loom large on Wall Street.
President Joe Biden signed into law today his landmark $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, and it includes approximately $550 billion in new funding for increased broadband access, improving the power grid, and more. But what does this mean for the American economy, and American workers? Eliza Collins, Politics Reporter at The Wall Street Journal joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss what's included in the bill, which former mayor has been tapped to oversee how the bill is implemented, and how these new infrastructure investments will impact the economy.
The two-week COP26 climate conference has now ended with leaders reaching a deal, but so far the deal is getting mixed reviews from climate experts across the globe. Chloe Demrovsky, president and CEO of Disaster Recovery Institute International, explains that while the agreement is a step forward in some ways, the world still has much more to work on in order to keep warming to below 2 degrees Celsius.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest with the infrastructure bill, the growing state rebellion over boosters, Trump's dereliction of duty on the pandemic, Taylor Swift's reign of cultural domination and more.
