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House Speaker Mike Johnson late Tuesday announced a spending bill that could avert a government shutdown if passed by both chambers before funds run out on Saturday.
The spending plan, known as a continuing resolution, has bipartisan support.
It would fund the government through March 14, setting off a new spending showdown in the early days of the Trump administration. Republicans will control both the House and Senate in January, but Republicans will have narrow margins in both chambers.
The deal includes nearly $100 billion in disaster relief and another $10 billion in bank relief for farmers in rural areas. It would also extend the Farm Bill by one year, make telemedicine available to more seniors, and reform how pharmacy benefit managers, known as PBMs, operate.
Other details of the bill include:
The agreement will provide nearly $100 billion to help Americans recover from multiple natural disasters in 2023 and 2024. The funding is in line with a request totaling about $100 billion issued by the Biden administration in November.
The roughly $29 billion would help replenish the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, which was depleted by battling two major hurricanes and other disasters that hit the Southeast earlier this year.
In October, FEMA quickly disbursed $9 billion of $20 billion in funding from Congress in response to Hurricanes Helen and Milton. The agency has also had to respond to wildfires, floods and tornadoes this year. Federal data shows that costly disasters are now occurring more frequently.
The package includes $2.2 billion for the Small Business Administration’s disaster loan program, $21 billion in disaster relief for farmers (including $10 billion in economic assistance to farmers), and $2.2 billion in disaster relief for farmers to repair water systems damaged by disasters. Includes $3.5 billion in state and tribal support grants for the United States.
It would provide $12 billion for the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s disaster relief program and $8 billion for federal highway and road disaster relief.
The bill includes $10 billion in economic aid for farmers, one of the final hurdles in negotiations earlier this week. Lawmakers from agriculture-focused states argued that aid is desperately needed as American farmers face falling commodity prices and rising supplies.
The spending deal also includes a one-year extension of the Farm Bill, a comprehensive package that governs many agricultural and nutrition assistance programs. The bill is typically renewed every five years, but the most recent version was passed in 2018, with an extension that expired at the end of September. The continuing resolution extends it until the end of September 2025.
After two years of failed attempts, lawmakers are calling on Pharmacy Benefits Management, a controversial intermediary between drug companies and insurance companies whose opaque practices have drawn the ire of Congress and many others. agreed to a series of reforms for the government.
The funding agreements require PBMs to provide more information about the rebates they negotiate and retain, as well as how much they pay for drugs and how much they reimburse pharmacies. This would remove the link between drug prices and the compensation PBMs receive in Medicare Part D drug plans, shifting the payment model to a flat fee.
Additionally, the agreement requires the industry to pass all rebates on to health plan sponsors in the commercial insurance market, including insurers and employers. It would also effectively eliminate so-called “spread pricing,” in which PBMs withhold a portion of the drug payments they receive from pharmacies under Medicaid.
Ross Margulies, a partner at healthcare law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, said the initiative aims to increase transparency and change the industry’s compensation structure. Previous concerns have been that PBMs have an incentive to favor higher-priced drugs because they can negotiate higher rebates.
In September, the Federal Trade Commission sued the largest PBMs, CVS Health’s Caremark Rx, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group’s Optum Rx, for allegedly gouging insulin prices.
PBMs argue that the bill could weaken their ability to reduce drug costs and result in higher premiums for seniors.
The funding agreement also includes a two-year extension of a pandemic-era measure that expanded the use of telehealth in Medicare.
Since the start of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) pandemic in early 2020, more seniors and Americans with disabilities have been able to receive care through telehealth. Eligibility for the service has been expanded beyond those living in rural areas, with seniors now able to conduct telehealth visits. No need to go to a medical facility, at home.
Maryland bridge funding
Under the agreement, the replacement of Maryland’s Francis Scott Key Bridge will be fully funded by the federal government. The bill would also allow the U.S. Treasury to collect settlements related to bridge collapses and use them to pay for reconstruction.
In March, a cargo ship collided with the bridge, causing it to collapse and cutting off access to a vital shipping route in and out of the Port of Baltimore. Six workers working on the bridge were killed.
Rebuilding the bridge could cost between $1.7 billion and $1.9 billion, according to estimates released earlier this year by the Maryland Department of Transportation.
The spending measure would give Washington, D.C., more control over the land surrounding the defunct Robert F. Kennedy Stadium and pave the way for the Washington Commanders football team to return to the nation’s capital.
This provision is a big win for Washington, D.C., which plans to negotiate construction of a new stadium where RFK is currently located. The Commanders currently play at Northwest Stadium (formerly known as FedEx Field) in Landover, Maryland.
The provision comes after Hill state leaders met other demands from Maryland leaders, including that the federal government pay for the entire cost of replacing the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The spending measure also transfers the DC Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron to the Maryland Air National Guard.
The bill would give lawmakers their first pay raises since 2009.
Republican and Democratic leaders agreed to include language that would allow lawmakers to receive automatic cost-of-living adjustments to their $174,000 annual base salary, according to people familiar with the discussions.
This is a change from the current practice in which Congress takes steps to eliminate cost-of-living adjustments in each spending bill. It’s been going on since the 2009 recession.
This clause can be problematic. At least one lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, said he opposes the stopgap spending bill unless the provision is removed.
The agreement also allows lawmakers to opt out of the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance, a requirement that has infuriated some Republican lawmakers, and to enroll in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Become.
A bipartisan bill that would criminalize the publication of non-consensual intimate images (NCII), also known as revenge porn and deepfakes, was attached to the spending package. Social media and other websites would also be required to have procedures in place to remove images within 48 hours of a valid request from a victim.
Many states currently have laws in place to address the publication of NCII, but this regulation, introduced earlier this year as the Take it Down Act, would create the first federal law.
Lawmakers and tech companies are under pressure to do more to combat revenge porn, as artificial intelligence makes it easier to create and spread content.
This story has been updated with additional details.
CNN’s Sarah Ferris, Lauren Fox, Claire Foran and Manu Raju contributed to this report.
