NYT: Inside a Huge Spending Deal: Disaster Money, a Football Stadium and More

[Dennis Donovan]

NYT - Inside a Huge Spending Deal: Disaster Money, a Football Stadium and More (free link)

The mammoth year-end federal funding measure congressional leaders agreed on does far more than just keep the government running. It is stuffed with all manner of policy and other changes.

By Catie Edmondson
Reporting from Washington

Dec. 18, 2024, 2:50 p.m. ET
The stopgap spending bill congressional leaders agreed on this week began as a simple funding measure to keep government funds flowing past a Friday night deadline and into early next year, long after House Republicans elect a speaker and President-elect Donald J. Trump is sworn in.

But by the time it was rolled out to lawmakers on Tuesday night, it had transformed into a true Christmas tree of a bill, adorned with all manner of unrelated policy measures in the kind of year-end catchall that Republicans have long derided. It is a 1,547-page behemoth of a package with provisions spanning foreign investment restrictions, new health care policies and a stadium for the Washington Commanders.

End-of-year spending bills often become magnets for unrelated measures, fueled by last-minute spasms of deal-cutting by lawmakers who recognize it could be their last chance to get something done. That was even more true this year with Democrats bracing for a Republican governing trifecta come January, and Speaker Mike Johnson arriving at the negotiating table sapped of leverage because a large group of his members refuses to vote for any spending measure.

Mr. Johnson had another incentive to allow the package to balloon: He could satisfy some longstanding bipartisan desires with minimal Republican fingerprints, merely blaming a Democratic Senate and White House for any bloat in the deal. He will not have that luxury in a few weeks, when Republicans control all of Congress and Mr. Trump is in the White House.

“We’ve got to get this done because here’s the key: by doing this, we are clearing the decks, and we are setting up for Trump to come in roaring back with the America First agenda,” Mr. Johnson said on “Fox and Friends” on Wednesday morning.

/snip

[snot]

1. I understand it also includes

big pay raises for Congresscritters (how about raising the minimum wage, people?) and a repeal of the requirement that they get their insurance via Obamacare.