US Congress Announces $1,600 Trillion Unresolved Budget Plan... Shutdown Likely Avoided

Six Key Issue Areas Including Homeland Security, National Defense, and Health and Welfare
Scheduled for Processing on the Morning of the 22nd

On the 21st (local time), the U.S. Congress unveiled budget bills for six unresolved sectors within the fiscal year 2024 budget (October 2023 to September 2024). As Congress ends its prolonged deadlock, the federal government is expected to avoid a shutdown.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, on the 8th, Congress prioritized passing six spending bills totaling $459 billion (approximately 611 trillion won) covering less contentious areas such as agriculture and energy out of the 12 total spending bills. The newly released budget package covers the remaining six sectors, including the Department of Homeland Security, defense, and health and welfare, with a total allocation of $1.2 trillion (approximately 1,598 trillion won).

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer reached an agreement on this budget package and officially announced it on the same day. The House is scheduled to pass the main budget bill on the morning of the 22nd, the last day to avoid a federal government shutdown. Once the House passes the budget, the Senate is expected to follow suit shortly thereafter.

With this, the U.S. Congress, which had been patching the budget gap with temporary funding bills, can bring an end to the prolonged deadlock. Even if the schedule is slightly delayed, as long as the procedures are completed during the weekend when federal employees are off, there will be no interruption in federal government operations.

The fiscal year budget was originally supposed to be finalized by the end of September last year. However, with the U.S. presidential election approaching in November, the gap between the Democratic and Republican parties remained wide, causing delays. In particular, the Republican-controlled House demanded significant spending cuts, leading to difficulties. As a result, Congress took the unusual step of splitting the main budget and processing the less contentious sectors first. The Washington Post (WP) pointed out that "since 1997, the U.S. Congress has never passed the budget on time before the start of the fiscal year."

Meanwhile, according to the newly released budget, the defense budget was increased to $866 billion (approximately 1,154 trillion won). In contrast, the State Department budget was cut by 6%. Regarding the Department of Homeland Security budget, which was a point of contention between the White House and Republicans until the end, funding for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was expanded, and costs for 22,000 border patrol agents were added. Other provisions include doubling security support for Taiwan and banning the display of LGBTQ+ flags at U.S. diplomatic missions abroad.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.