(Kitco News) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told reporters on Monday afternoon that she believes the top-line federal spending deal reached by congressional leaders on Sunday is consistent with last June's debt ceiling agreement, according to a Reuters report.
Yellen was speaking at the Washington headquarters of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). The Treasury Secretary said she was encouraged by the deal announced on Sunday evening by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, but she didn’t know whether or not another federal government shutdown could be avoided once the current funding deal expires.
"It's a basic responsibility of Congress, of the government, to keep the government up and running," Yellen told reporters. "Americans depend on these services and posing a threat to continued good economic performance is something that we don't need, so I'm hopeful we will not have to shut down."
Sunday’s $1.59 trillion spending deal now sets up a race for lawmakers to pass the appropriation bills for that amount before the government begins to shut down later this month.
Since early last year, the appropriations committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate have been unable to agree on the 12 annual bills needed to fund the government for the fiscal year that began Oct. 1 because of disagreements over the total amount of money to be spent.
Now that lawmakers have returned from their holiday break, the committees will launch intensive negotiations over how much the various government agencies can spend in the current fiscal year, which runs through Sept. 30, 2024.
Jan. 19 is the deadline for the first set of bills through Congress, and Feb. 2 is the deadline for the remaining bills.
Cracks have already begun to emerge in the hours following the deal. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a statement saying that the deal includes $886 billion for defense and $704 billion for non-defense spending, while Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s statement claimed the non-defense spending would total $772.7 billion.
Last spring, Biden and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached a deal on the $1.59 trillion in fiscal 2024 spending, along with an increase in borrowing authority to avoid a historic U.S. debt default.
If the Republican-controlled House and the Democrat-led Senate don’t pass the 12 bills required to fully fund the government, money for federal programs involving transportation, housing, agriculture, energy, veterans and military construction will run out on Jan. 19. Funding for defense and some other government activities will continue through Feb. 2.
