(UnitedHeadlines.com) – President Joe Biden is threatening to veto House Republicans spending bills for military construction, veterans’ affairs as well as agriculture appropriations.
According to Biden, the proposed military construction and veterans affairs budget bill is a deviation from the agreement he struck with House Speaker and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy during the debt ceiling fight. In May, Biden and House Republicans agreed to a spending deal to raise the debt ceiling to avoid a default that rolled back nondefense discretionary spending to the fiscal year 2022 levels. As proposed, the bill would add more cuts in funding to the Inflation Reduction Act which was passed by Democrats in 2022.
The proposed agriculture spending bill would also include more cuts than previously agreed upon.
Almost 100 amendments were filed before the House Rules Committee on July 25 meeting by both Republicans and Democrats. The House Rules Committee was also seeking to add amendments to both proposed spending bills that included such topics as marijuana, abortion, critical race theory, transgender rights as well as diversity training.
One proposal is from California Rep. Robert Garcia, a Democrat, who has proposed an amendment that prohibits marijuana testing in states where it is legal for job applicants.
Republicans were seeking to make the language about abortions more aggressive while Democrats were seeking to get rid of parts of the bill that included restrictions on abortions. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed an amendment to prohibit funds from being transferred to a federal agency for services that are related to abortion.
The House is expected to discuss both the military construction spending bill and the agriculture appropriations spending bill before the end of July. McCarthy said he will pass each bill individually, instead of combining them into one as has been done in the past. The funding bills must be passed by the deadline of Sept. 30.
Biden stated that if he is presented with the bills as drafted, he would veto both.
Copyright 2023, UnitedHeadlines.com
