House to vote on spending package to avert shutdown

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 House to vote on spending package to avert shutdown: Live coverage
by The Hill staff - 03/06/24 9:02 AM ET

The House on Wednesday is slated to vote on a package of six fiscal year 2024 spending bills, the first full-year bills to come up for a vote more than five months into the fiscal year.

The measure is expected to come up under a suspension of the rules, denying conservatives the chance to sink it on a procedural vote, and looks likely to pass.

But conservatives are expressing outrage over the price tag, the exclusion of a number of policy priorities, the packaging of six bills together and the decision to bring it up under suspension. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has endorsed the legislation.

Republicans are scheduled to hold a meeting this morning, with votes to follow in the afternoon.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4511212-spending-package-shutdown-house-live-coverage/

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Earmarks agreed to in $460B must-pass spending bill to avoid government shutdown

Ultra-conservative Republicans are railing against the 605 pages of earmarks that will be included in a $460 billion spending package to fund six agencies of government that will come up for a vote on Wednesday.

The earmarks have already caused scandal within the Senate, where Pennsylvania Democrat John Fetterman's office rescinded support for a $1 million earmark for an LGBTQ center in Pennsylvania that hosts Bondage parties.

The funding caused a backlash on social media, prompting Fetterman, who was long one of the staunchest pro-LGBTQ lawmakers in the Keystone State, to have the earmark removed.

Public housing residents in Democratic Rep. Nanette Barragan’s California district will get $1 million for an electric vehicle car share thanks to her.

Alabama state route 167 will get $20 million thanks to GOP Sen. Katie Britt.

The NAACP headquarters in Baltimore will get $500,000 thanks to Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.

A boy scout camp, Camp Maluhia, will get $1 million*for a new dining hall thanks to Sen. Brian Schatz.

Rep. Greg Steube, a Republican of Florida, will get $190,000 for a ‘shark repellent study’ in Sarasota

Angoon, Alaska, a town of 349 people, will get $3 million for landfill and waste management improvement, as requested by Murkowski.

Chattanooga, Tennessee will get $6.4 million to ‘support’ 1.3 miles of trails on the Alton Park Connector, thanks to Republican Rep. Chuck Fleischmann.

The Drummond Culinary Academy in Monterey, California will get $1 million thanks to Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren.

An opera house in Vergennes, Vermont will get $500,000 to improve accessibility, thanks to Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and the under-3,000-person-town of Berlin, Vermont will get $1.6 million for pedestrian infrastructure in the town center.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was particularly successful at getting funding for projects in his state ... included in the bill with eight projects included - $5 million for a pedestrian overpass at Coastal Carolina University,

$7 million for ‘economic development’ of Charleston County,

$6 million for the Saluda Grade rail trail on South Carolina,

$10 million for an ROTC facility at the University of South Carolina,

$2 million for public land improvement and $2 million for Ramsey Grove State Park improvement, and $750,000 for waterline and fire safety improvement in Beaufort.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13164347/earmarks-spending-bill-millions-gay-bdsm-parties-shark-repellent-study-shocking.html