The News
Leaders in the US Congress announced they had agreed to a spending deal that would stave off a government shutdown until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The short-term plan would maintain government funding at current levels until Dec. 20 — House Speaker Mike Johnson dropped a GOP demand for people registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship, to get the deal through. The spending bill will include an additional $231 million for the Secret Service, which has come under lawmakers’ scrutiny following the assassination attempts on former President Donald Trump.
The House is likely to vote on the bill Wednesday, setting the stage for the battle over spending to resume just before the holidays.
SIGNALS
Secret Service funding comes as public opinion of agency sours
The proposed additional $231 million for the Secret Service represents a surprisingly fast reaction on the part of Congress to the second alleged assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. A separate Senate push to expand protection standards also seems set for quick passage amid the “bipartisan angst” over the agency, Semafor’s Burgess Everett reported. The angst is shared by the public, polling shows: The percentage of US adults who rate the Secret Service “excellent” or “good” plummeted 23 percentage points since last year, according to a Gallup survey conducted after the first assassination attempt — an on par decline in confidence with the Federal Reserve in the wake of the Great Depression, Gallup noted.
‘No appetite’ for a spending fight this close to election
House Republicans “have less incentive to compromise because they’re more worried about a primary challenge from their flank than they are losing their seat to the other party,” a political expert told Vox. Yet that a deal was reached despite some Republican lawmakers’ demands for spending cuts and additional voter registration rules suggests the party leadership has “no appetite” for a fight so close to the election, The Wall Street Journal noted. “As history has taught and current polling affirms, shutting the government down less than 40 days from a fateful election would be an act of political malpractice,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said.