Political | Process

House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal Sunday on how much the U.S. government will spend in the new year.

The deal would establish an overall spending level of $1.59 trillion in fiscal year 2024, reflecting the bipartisan budget deal struck last year by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Johnson, R-La., told colleagues in a letter. The breakdown is $886 billion for the military and $704 billion for nondefense spending, Johnson said.

Johnson added that there will be “key modifications” to the agreement in order to reduce nonmilitary spending with a $16 billion “offset.” That includes $6.1 billion in unused Covid funds and $10 billion in IRS money under the Inflation Reduction Act, Johnson said.

“While these final spending levels will not satisfy everyone, and they do not cut as much spending as many of us would like, this deal does provide us a path to –

1) Move the process forward;

2) Reprioritize funding within the topline towards conservative objectives, instead of last year’s Schumer-Pelosi omnibus; and

3) Fight for the important policy riders included in our House FY24 bills,” Johnson wrote in his letter to colleagues.

A senior Democratic aide said the Biden-McCarthy deal included $20.2 billion in IRS cuts spread over two years; the new agreement with Johnson just means they’ll happen over one year instead.

After the agreement was announced, Schumer told his caucus “it’s a good deal for Democrats and the country” on a briefing call with senators, according to a source on the call.

Schumer and Jeffries said that when factoring in the added $69 billion, the nondefense discretionary spending level will be $772.7 billion in the new fiscal year under the deal.

“The framework agreement to proceed will enable the appropriators to address many of the major challenges America faces at home and abroad. It will also allow us to keep the investments for hardworking American families secured by the legislative achievements of President Biden and Congressional Democrats.

Finally, we have made clear to Speaker Mike Johnson that Democrats will not support including poison pill policy changes in any of the twelve appropriations bills put before the Congress,” they said.

The Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate still need to establish — and agree on — how to allocate those funds. Then they’ll need to write and publish legislation to that effect and pass that through both chambers.