Congress passed a $1.2 billion spending package on Friday, which may be the first and last major move of House Speaker Mike Johnson. The bill will fund the government through the end of the year.
Johnson promised his party that he would cut federal spending and redirect foreign aid to the southern border but he accomplished exactly none of that. The Wall Street Journal reports that he worked alongside more Democrats than Republicans to pass this bill.
The bill includes more money for LGBTQ issues, central digital currency for cattle, more money to study Chinese espionage, and of course directs boatloads of additional money to Israel. As a reminder, Israel has a massive budget surplus and a space agency.
Oddly, it cut the FBI budget by $654 million and cut its construction account by 95%. And yet the FBI just gave itself sweeping new powers. See the previous story. So how do you square that?
Representative Thomas Massey put out feelers for rejecting House Speaker Johnson, but the numbers don’t look good.