The Senate will reportedly consider the $118 billion supplemental spending package released by the Senate Appropriations Committee, without offsets or the controversial immigration provisions.
The legislation includes billions of additional funding for Ukraine, Israel, and other foreign aid. The proposed spending by Congress is already more costly than the $106 billion requested for these purposes by President joe Biden.
Further spending increases would be a mistake.
Speaker Johnson has already made an agreement with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to increase Fiscal Year 2024 non-defense discretionary appropriations above the statutory caps specified in the Fiscal Responsibility Act through a variety of budgetary gimmicks and real cuts, such as the rescission of IRS funding.
Assuming Congress sticks to the Johnson-Schumer levels, FY 2024 discretionary spending would be about $63 billion below the FY 2023 levels passed under former Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
However, adding a $118 billion supplemental appropriation to the Johnson-Schumer levels would take discretionary spending $55 billion above the Pelosi level.
Government spending is already high and growing at an unsustainable rate. Congress should be looking for ways to reduce spending, such as by clawing back about $120 billion of unspent money from the Coronavirus State and Local Relief Fund.
