US Congressional leaders on Monday unveiled a bipartisan deal funding government through September, with a compromise that includes President Donald Trump’s call for increased military spending but ignores his demand to fund a border wall.
The agreement was struck late Sunday after weeks of tense negotiations fuelled the threat of a government shutdown just as Mr Trump was to mark his 100th day in office.
Congress is expected to vote this week on the new bill, which provides $1.163 trillion in overall federal spending, ahead of a Friday night deadline when government funding would expire absent a new agreement.
The leaders in the Republican-controlled Congress will need support from Democrats in the Senate in order to pass the legislation. Despite Republicans running Congress and the White House, the opposition party has hailed the spending bill as a victory because the Trump administration has punted on several elements that Mr Trump had deemed priorities during his presidential campaign.
Notably it includes no money for Mr Trump’s border wall.Mr Trump made building the wall along the southern US border with Mexico one of the primary pledges of his campaign, insisting it would begin within his first 100 days, a milestone that came and went on Saturday.
But Republicans are pleased because the bill adds some $1.5 billion in funding for other security efforts along the nearly 3,218-km border, and boosts military spending.
Of the trillion dollars in the bill’s discretionary spending, $598.5 billion is slated for defense — an increase of $25 billion, or 4.5 per cent, above fiscal year 2016 levels.
