Senate Democrats released nine remaining appropriations bills Monday in an effort to jump-start bipartisan talks, though the funding levels don’t dedicate as much to defense as the GOP would like and would eliminate a ban on federal funding for abortion.
Within a discretionary spending ceiling of roughly $1.5 trillion, Senate Democrats would set aside $778 billion for the Pentagon and other security-related agencies — a 5 percent boost over fiscal 2021 that would match bipartisan defense authorization bills in both chambers.
Spending on domestic and foreign aid programs would increase by more than 13 percent, a figure that Republicans reject as too high given the much slimmer boosts for defense-related programs.
Those numbers mark a shift from Democrats’ positions earlier this year. The Biden administration’s budget request proposed a 1.6 percent increase for defense and 16.5 percent more for nondefense programs. House Democrats in their initial fiscal 2022 spending bills largely adhered to those numbers though put in about $2 billion extra for defense.
Senate Democrats view their proposed funding levels as an effort to “move the ball forward” in talks with Republicans, according to a committee aide who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Appropriations ranking member Richard C. Shelby, have called for equal increases between defense and nondefense funding.
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