The seven bills make up what’s known as a “minibus,” or a more limited version of the omnibus spending packages that fund the entire government at once. Congress has until the end of September to fund the government in full, and lawmakers are juggling a number of other hot-button issues they hope to advance in that same time frame.
The minibus aims to fund the departments of Labor, Education, Agriculture, Transportation, and Health and Human Services, among other agencies. The House began debating the bills on Tuesday, with the goal of passing them as soon as later this week.
Here are some takeaways from the legislation.
EVEN MORE MONEY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
The Transportation Department portion of the spending bill pumps billions more into infrastructure — even though Republicans and Democrats are separately negotiating a deal that would invest $600 billion in new infrastructure spending, above the existing levels at the department.
Democratic priorities are paid for by the appropriation. For example, the bill funds hundreds of “zero-emission buses” and diesel buses, setting aside $580 million for the purchase of the buses and for “transformative research for transit systems.”
House Democrats directed even more money to the Department of Transportation than President Joe Biden asked for in the massive budget blueprint he released earlier this year; the department would receive $18.7 billion more than what the White House requested for next year.
ABORTION GETS A BOOST
The spending bills eliminate the Hyde Amendment, language that was traditionally inserted into appropriations bills to bar federal dollars from funding abortions.
The omission of Hyde Amendment language could threaten its passage on the House floor.
The minibus also adopts language reflective of a rule the Biden administration proposed in April, which would lift restrictions on funding for care facilities that provide abortion referrals or that are located in the same physical space as abortion clinics.
The language in the funding bill would “restore grant funding to Planned Parenthood” and similar organizations, according to the House Appropriations Committee.
POLICE REFORM MAKES A CAMEO
The Department of Justice would get a $2.64 billion boost over 2021 levels.
But the Justice Department section of the appropriations bill does not include any increase in funding for community policing grants that offer money to local police forces, funding them instead at the same levels as last year.
Lawmakers moved to tie the grants to nine new police reform tactics, including “eliminating racial profiling and implicit bias” and banning chokeholds. State and local governments would be required to comply with the guidelines as a precondition for receiving the funding.
The Justice Department bill sets aside $12 million for “domestic radicalization research, including research on white supremacist extremism,” reflecting a Biden administration focus on white supremacy as a top threat to the country.
SOME CHARTER SCHOOLS COULD LOSE FUNDING
The Department of Education appropriations bill would slash funding for certain charter schools — schools that are privately operated but receive public funding and are subject to fewer regulations than public schools.
“The bill includes new language preventing Federal funds from being awarded to charter schools run by for-profit entities,” the House Appropriations Committee said in a summary of the legislation.
Biden embraced the idea of defunding for-profit charter schools after it was recommended during the 2020 race by the Biden-Sanders Unity Task Force, which put forward a slate of policies aimed at unifying the liberal wing of the party led by Sen. Bernie Sanders and the more centrist wing exemplified by Biden.
Nonprofit groups run most charter schools, but some are operated by private companies. More than 1,100 for-profit charter schools are spread across 26 states and the District of Columbia, according to the Network for Public Education.
Opponents of charter schools argue they can take money and resources away from traditional public schools, while supporters say they can offer more opportunities for children trapped in struggling public school systems.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS A BIG FOCUS
House Democrats invest significant sums of taxpayer money into climate-related policies using the minibus.
The Department of Energy section of the bill increases the amount of funding for renewable energy programs by $906 million over last year, for example.
The legislation would establish a new, $100 million grant program to hand out “Build Back Better Challenge Grants” focused on “novel methods for clean energy deployment” in impoverished areas.
Through the Department of Agriculture, the minibus would dedicate an additional $347.4 million “to address the impacts of climate change.”
The Department of Health and Human Services part of the package would give an enormous influx of cash to climate change research as well.
House Democrats set aside $110 million for “research on the impacts of climate change on human health,” a $100 million increase over last year.
This article was originally published by Washington Examiner. Read the original article.
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