Politics

By Jack Queen

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden’s proposed deal with prosecutors to plead guilty to tax charges and avoid a gun charge hit a snag on Wednesday when the judge in the case said she needed more time to review their agreement.

The news means that the younger Biden’s legal woes will continue to dog the president as he campaigns for re-election in 2024. His leading rival, former President Donald Trump, and Trump’s Republican allies in Congress had criticized the deal as unfairly favoring the president’s son.

The stunning turnabout came after what was expected to be a routine plea hearing turned into a three-hour affair featuring hushed negotiations between lawyers and pointed questions from U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika.

“I cannot accept the plea agreement today,” she said, asking the parties to brief her on why she should accept it, meaning that Hunter Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors may yet persuade her to approve the deal as it was previously negotiated, or to alter it to a form she can accept. She said she did not want to “rubber stamp” a plea deal.

Hunter Biden at the hearing pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to pay taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018 despite owing more than $100,000, prosecutors allege.

He did not enter a plea in a separate case where he is charged with unlawfully owning a firearm while addicted to and using a controlled substance, a felony.

Hunter Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors disagreed in court over whether the deal they had reached would have prevented the younger Biden from being charged with any other crimes, with defense lawyer Chris Clark at one point saying the deal was “null and void.”

Biden said he would not plead guilty to the tax charges without a deal in place to avoid prosecution on the gun charge, but changed course after extensive negotiations between his lawyers and prosecutors while Noreika waited in her chambers.

The parties ultimately agreed that the deal would only grant Biden immunity on a limited set of tax, drug and firearm offenses.

POLITICALLY CHARGED CASE

Republicans have for years accused Hunter Biden of leveraging his father’s political power for personal gain in his dealings in Ukraine and China, though the probe by U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, a Trump appointee, has not turned up any evidence to support those claims.

News of the plea deal in June sparked accusations of favorable treatment for the president’s son from Trump and his Republican allies, who have for years accused the younger Biden of influence-peddling abroad, among other things.

Those allegations spurred the criminal investigation by Weiss, who in a departure from typical practice was allowed to remain in office to continue the probe after Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

Weiss was present in court on Wednesday but did not speak.

White House spokesperson Karine Jeane-Pierre said the president supported his son, adding, “Hunter Biden is a private citizen and this was a personal matter for him.”

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied allegations of special treatment and said Weiss was given full autonomy to investigate Hunter Biden. Weiss has also said he faced no interference.

Hunter Biden has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, consultant, investment banker and artist. He has publicly discussed his struggles with addiction, including alcoholism and crack cocaine use.

Trump, who was indicted in New York for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star and faces federal criminal charges in Florida for his handling of classified documents upon leaving office in 2021, has criticized Hunter Biden’s deal with prosecutors as a mere “traffic ticket.”

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Scott Malone, Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The first of 12 fiscal 2024 spending bills overcame a procedural hurdle in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday, as lawmakers edged toward a looming showdown with the Democratic-led Senate that could trigger a government shutdown this autumn.

The House voted 217-206 to approve a rule allowing debate on an appropriations bill for military construction and veterans affairs.

(Reporting by David Morgan)

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By Hannah Lang

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A key congressional committee is set to vote this week on several bills that would develop a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies, a milestone for Capitol Hill in its efforts to codify federal oversight for the digital asset industry.

The crypto industry has been in the regulatory crosshairs since investors were burned last year by sudden collapses of Celsius Network, Voyager Digital, FTX and other companies.

Among the legislation the House Financial Services Committee is considering on Wednesday and Thursday are a bill that would define when a cryptocurrency is a security or a commodity and another that would establish a regime to oversee stablecoins – digital tokens typically backed by traditional assets like the U.S. dollar.

The markups – where legislation is debated and brought to a vote, paving the way for a full vote by the House of Representatives – are the first time crypto regulatory bills will be put to a vote in Congress, a victory for crypto lobbyists that have pushed lawmakers to provide regulatory clarity for the industry.

“Obviously we’ve had some important decisions come from the courts in the past, but this is by far the most significant legislative moment that we’ve had,” said Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association.

Still, it remains to be seen if the bills will garner any Democratic support, a factor seen by many as crucial to the bills’ ultimate chances of becoming law.

The measures also would likely face obstacles in the Democratic-led Senate, where the head of the Senate Banking Committee, Sherrod Brown, has said he is unsure if additional legislation to regulate crypto is necessary.

Representative Patrick McHenry, the Republican chair of the committee, has indicated that his priority is advancing a crypto market structure bill, which would expand the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) oversight of the crypto industry, while clarifying the Securities and Exchange Commission’s jurisdiction, as many crypto advocates complain of the agency’s perceived overreach. His committee is expected to consider that bill during a markup on Wednesday, while the House Agriculture Committee will consider the same bill on Thursday.

“As other jurisdictions like the UK, the [European Union], Singapore and Australia have moved forward with clear regulatory frameworks for digital assets, the United States is at risk of falling behind. We intend to change that today,” said McHenry at the outset of Wednesday’s markup.

The bill has galvanized many in the crypto industry, who say that with Democrats’ support, the bill could have a shot in the Senate.

“For anything to be sticky, it’s going to need some bipartisan backing,” said Miller Whitehouse-Levine, CEO of the DeFi Education Fund, a lobbying group focused on decentralized finance.

CLARITY ON TOKENS

Crypto companies started out in a regulatory gray area, but the SEC has steadily asserted its authority over the industry, arguing that most cryptocurrencies are securities and subject to investor protection rules. That effort escalated last month when the SEC sued crypto exchanges Coinbase and Binance for failing to register some crypto tokens. The pair deny the allegations.

Most crypto companies dispute the SEC’s jurisdiction, and have pushed Congress in recent months to write laws clarifying that cryptocurrencies are more akin to commodities than securities.

It is unclear if any Democrats will back the market structure bill, including Representative Maxine Waters, the top Democrat on the Financial Services committee. A spokesperson for Waters did not respond to a request for comment.

Lawmakers are also set to consider on Thursday a bill that would have the Federal Reserve write requirements for issuing stablecoins while preserving the authority of state regulators.

The bill was modified to address concerns from some Democrats, including Waters, that stablecoin issuers could evade stricter oversight by opting to be regulated under a state regime.

While McHenry told Politico in an interview this month he remained hopeful that he and Waters would reach an agreement on the bill, he also said a federal stablecoin regime is “not essential,” adding that there are state frameworks already in place.

A spokesperson for McHenry did not respond to a request for comment.

(Reporting by Hannah Lang in Washington; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Mark Porter)

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By Jack Queen

WILMINGTON, Delaware (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on Wednesday told a judge he intended to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes, according to the New York Times and CNN.

The plea is part of a deal that allows him to avert conviction on a gun-related charge.

The younger Biden did not pay taxes on more than $1.5 million in income in 2017 and 2018 despite owing more than $100,000, prosecutors allege.

He is also charged in a separate case with unlawfully owning a firearm while addicted to and using a controlled substance, a felony. Under an agreement with federal prosecutors in Delaware, the younger Biden has entered into a pretrial diversion agreement for that charge, an alternative to prosecution that allows defendants to avoid a conviction or prison time.

The plea comes as Democratic President Biden is in the middle of a re-election campaign that could pit him against former President Donald Trump, the current front-runner for the Republican nomination for the 2024 election.

Biden had no public events on his schedule on Wednesday, a decision that will keep him out of earshot of reporters who could ask about the court appearance.

Republicans have for years accused Hunter Biden of leveraging his father’s political power for personal gain in his dealings in Ukraine and China, though the probe by U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, a Trump appointee, has not turned up any evidence to support those claims.

News of the plea deal in June sparked accusations of favorable treatment for the president’s son from Trump and his Republican allies, who have for years accused the younger Biden of influence-peddling abroad, among other things.

Those allegations spurred the criminal investigation by Weiss, who in a departure from typical practice was allowed to remain in office to continue the probe after Biden defeated Trump in the 2020 election.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has denied allegations of special treatment and said Weiss was given full autonomy to investigate Hunter Biden. Weiss has also said he faced no interference.

Hunter Biden has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, consultant, investment banker and artist. He has publicly discussed his struggles with addiction, including alcoholism and crack cocaine use.

Trump, who was indicted in New York for allegedly falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to a porn star and faces federal criminal charges in Florida for his handling of classified documents upon leaving office in 2021, has criticized Hunter Biden’s deal with prosecutors as a mere “traffic ticket.”

The tax charges could carry a sentence of up to 18 months, but legal experts say Hunter Biden is unlikely to face prison time because he has no prior criminal history and has accepted responsibility for his actions.

(Reporting by Jack Queen; Additional reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Scott Malone, Noeleen Walder and Jonathan Oatis)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign said on Tuesday it had let go of 38 employees in recent weeks, or over one-third of the campaign’s staff, as the Florida governor seeks to cut spending and rally his flagging electoral fortunes.

DeSantis, who is vying for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, is in second place in the large Republican field, but he remains far behind former President Donald Trump, the front-runner.

“Following a top-to-bottom review of our organization, we have taken additional, aggressive steps to streamline operations and put Ron DeSantis in the strongest position to win this primary and defeat Joe Biden,” DeSantis’ campaign manager, Generra Peck, said in a statement.

President Biden does not face a serious challenge for the Democratic nomination.

While DeSantis’ campaign raised about $20 million in the second quarter, allies were concerned about how fast he burned through that cash. He spent about $8 million during that period.

Most of the money came from donors who contributed the maximum legal amount to his campaign and cannot contribute further this election. That could pose financial difficulties for DeSantis if he cannot increase the number of so-called “small dollar” donors in the near future.

The campaign had more than 90 paid staffers in the second quarter, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission, an unusually high number for this stage in a presidential campaign.

DeSantis had cut roughly a dozen staffers earlier in July. The 38 that he has cut overall includes those staffers who were first eliminated.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery; editing by Ross Colvin and Jonathan Oatis)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday honored Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 killing helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement, and his mother with a national monument spanning two states and a call for Americans to learn the country’s full history.

Till, 14 and visiting from Chicago, was beaten, shot and mutilated in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 28, 1955, four days after a 21-year-old white woman accused him of whistling at her. His body was dumped in a river.

The violent killing put a spotlight on the U.S. civil rights cause after his mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, held an open-casket funeral and a photo of her son’s badly disfigured body appeared in Black media.

The national monument designation across 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares) and three sites marks a forceful new effort by the president to memorialize the country’s bloody racial history even as Republicans in some states push limits on how that past is taught in public schools.

“Darkness and denialism can hide much but they erase nothing,” Biden told guests in the ornate, marble-edged Indian Treaty Room next to the White House, before signing the proclamation. “We can’t just choose to learn what we want to know.”

Biden, an 80-year-old Democrat, will likely need strong support from Black voters to secure a second term in the 2024 presidential election.

A Republican field led by former President Donald Trump has made conservative views on race and other contentious issues of history a part of their platform, including banning books and fighting efforts to teach school children accounts of the country’s past that they regard as ideologically inflected or unpatriotic.

New education guidelines issued in Florida under Republican governor and 2024 presidential candidate Ron DeSantis last week ask middle school instructors to teach that enslaved Black people developed helpful “skills” in bondage, among other measures.

“Today there are those in our nation who prefer to erase or even rewrite the ugly parts of our past, those who attempt to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery,” Vice President Kamala Harris said at the event.

“As people who love our country, as patriots we know that we much remember and teach our full history even when it is painful. Especially when it is painful,” she said.

Tuesday marks the 82nd anniversary of Till’s birth in 1941. One of the monument sites is his funeral location, Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, in Chicago.

The other selected sites are in Mississippi: Graball Landing, close to where Till’s body is believed to be have been recovered; and Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, where two white men who later confessed to Till’s killing were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Signs erected at Graball Landing since 2008 to commemorate Till’s killing have been repeatedly defaced by gunfire.

Now that site and the others will be considered federal property, receiving about $180,000 a year in funding from the National Park Service. Any future vandalism would be investigated by federal law enforcement rather than local police, according to Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.

Other such monuments include the Grand Canyon, the Statue of Liberty and inventor Thomas Edison’s laboratory.

“America is changing, America is making progress,” said the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., 84, a cousin of Till’s who was with the boy on the night he was abducted at gunpoint from a relatives’ house in Mississippi where they were staying.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years and I try to tell young people that they happen, but they happen very slow,” Parker said in a telephone interview as he traveled from Chicago to Washington to attend the ceremony as one of the White House’s approximately 60 guests.

Biden screened a film recounting the killing and its aftermath, “Till,” at the White House in February. Last March, he signed into law a bipartisan bill named for Till that for the first time made lynching a federal hate crime.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt, Jonathan Allen and Steve Holland; Editing by Heather Timmons, Lincoln Feast and Mark Porter)

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The top Republican in the U.S. Congress said on Tuesday that he could launch an impeachment inquiry into Democratic President Joe Biden, if the administration fails to provide information sought by committees investigating the president and his family.

Three committees in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives are investigating unproven allegations of financial misconduct by Biden, his son Hunter Biden and other family members, which the White House has dismissed as “insane conspiracy theories.”

“What is happening right now are the committees of jurisdiction are continuing to investigate,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters. “If the departments in government … deny us the ability to get the information we’re asking, that would rise to an impeachment inquiry.”

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre on Tuesday brushed aside the possibility of an impeachment inquiry.

“He’s focused on the American family, but they want to focus on his family. They can do whatever it is that they wish to do, but we’re going to stay focused,” Jean-Pierre said.

Members of McCarthy’s Republican caucus began raising the idea of impeaching Biden shortly after winning their narrow majority in the November election, and some have called for votes to “expunge” the two impeachments of Republican former President Donald Trump.

McCarthy spoke to reporters a day before Hunter Biden was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of willfully failing to pay income taxes and to enter into an agreement that could avert a conviction on a gun-related charge.

Among other allegations, Republicans claim that the Justice Department intervened to restrain the Hunter Biden probe, though the Trump-appointed prosecutor in that case has said he was not constrained.

An investigation involving the House Oversight, Judiciary and Ways & Means committees has intensified since Trump’s federal grand jury indictment in June.

House Republicans have sought to defend Trump against allegations of wrongdoing by accusing Biden of “weaponizing” the Justice Department against the leading 2024 Republican White House candidate.

PROSECUTOR REBUTS WHISTLEBLOWER

Last week, the House Oversight Committee heard testimony from two Internal Revenue Services whistleblowers who said the Justice Department dragged its feet on the Hunter Biden probe and that chief investigator, U.S. Attorney David Weiss, was denied special counsel authority.

Weiss, who is expected to testify before Congress later this year, denied Justice Department interference and said he never sought special counsel status in a letter to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham.

Some of the Republican allegations against Biden and his family involve the Ukraine energy company Burisma, which played a key role in Trump’s first impeachment in 2019 over his alleged efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens and help him win re-election. A Republican-majority Senate later acquitted Trump.

McCarthy cited an FBI report containing claims from an unidentified informant who said Burisma officials sought to pay the Bidens $5 million apiece in 2015 and 2016, in return for their help in forcing out a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the energy company.

Claims of Biden wrongdoing in Ukraine have been contradicted by former Trump insider Lev Parnas, who helped former New York City mayor and one-time Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani try to dig up damaging information about the Bidens in Ukraine.

“There is no evidence of Joe or Hunter Biden interfering with Ukrainian politics, and there never has been,” Parnas said in a July 18 letter to the House Oversight Committee.

Parnas, a Ukrainian-American businessman, is serving out a 20-month sentence under house arrest for defrauding investors in a sham company and making illegal donations to U.S. political candidates on behalf of a Russian oligarch.

(Reporting by David Morgan; additional reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Scott Malone and Cynthia Osterman)

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By Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Allen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday will honor Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 killing helped galvanize the Civil Rights movement, and his mother with a national monument across two states.

Till, 14 and visiting from Chicago, was beaten, shot and mutilated in Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 28, 1955, four days after a 21-year-old white woman accused him of whistling at her. His body was dumped in a river.

The violent killing put a spotlight on the U.S. civil rights cause after his mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, held an open-casket funeral and a photo of her son’s badly disfigured body appeared in Black media.

The national monument designation across 5.7 acres (2.3 hectares) and three sites marks a forceful new effort by the president to memorialize the country’s bloody racial history even as Republicans in some states push limits on how that past is taught.

“America is changing, America is making progress,” said the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., 84, a cousin of Till’s who was with the boy on the night he was abducted at gunpoint from the relatives’ house they were staying at in Mississippi.

“I’ve seen a lot of changes over the years and I try to tell young people that they happen, but they happen very slow,” Parker said on Monday in a telephone interview as he traveled from Chicago to Washington to attend the signing ceremony at the White House as one of approximately 60 guests.

Tuesday marks the 82nd anniversary of Till’s birth in 1941. One of the monument sites is the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Till’s funeral took place.

The other selected sites are in Mississippi: Graball Landing, close to where Till’s body is believed to be have been recovered; and Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, where two white men who later confessed to Till’s killing were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Signs erected at Graball Landing since 2008 to commemorate Till’s killing have been repeatedly defaced by gunfire.

Now that site and the others will be considered federal property, receiving about $180,000 a year in funding from the National Park Service. Any future vandalism would be investigated by federal law enforcement rather than local police, according to Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.

Other such monuments include the Grand Canyon, Statue of Liberty and the laboratory of inventor Thomas Edison.

Biden, an 80-year-old Democrat, will likely need strong support from Black voters to secure a second term in the 2024 presidential election.

He screened a film recounting the lynching, “Till,” at the White House in February. Last March, he signed into law a bipartisan bill named for Till that for the first time made lynching a federal hate crime.

A Republican field led by former President Donald Trump has made conservative views on race and other contentious issues of history a part of their platform, including banning books and fighting efforts to teach school children accounts of the country’s past that they regard as ideologically inflected or unpatriotic.

“This is an amazing, teachable moment to talk about the importance of this story as an American story that everybody can share in now, particularly at a time when people are trying to rewrite history,” said Christopher Benson, president of the non-profit organization the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute in Summit, Illinois.

“We have a memorial now that is not erasable. It can’t be banned and it can’t be censored, and we think that’s a very important thing.

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Jonathan Allen; Editing by Heather Timmons and Lincoln Feast)

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Joe Biden is making a fresh push to force health insurance companies to improve access to mental health treatment for Americans who too often struggle to find and afford the care they need, officials said on Tuesday.

The administration on Tuesday will release the text of a proposed rule change to the 2008 Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act. Biden will make remarks about the plan on Tuesday afternoon.

The rule change would require health plans to make changes when they are providing inadequate access to mental health care.

It would also provide specific examples that make clear that health plans cannot use more restrictive prior authorization, other medical management techniques or narrower networks that make it harder for people to access mental health and substance use disorder benefits.

“Despite the repeated bipartisan efforts aimed at mental health parity, insurers too often make it difficult to access mental health treatment, causing millions of consumers to seek care out-of-network at significantly higher costs and pay out of pocket, or defer care altogether,” the White House said in a fact sheet announcing the rule change proposal.

The proposed text will be open to public comment for 60 days and administration officials said they expected it would go into effect sometime afterward.

The White House fact sheet cited one study it said showed that insured people are well more than twice as likely to be forced to go out-of-network and pay higher fees for mental health care than for physical health care.

“We’ve learned that insurers are evading the mandate of the law,” White House domestic adviser Neera Tanden said in a conference call with reporters.

A U.S. study in 2017 said that people with serious psychological distress, which includes any mental illness severe enough to require treatment, are three times more likely to be too poor to afford care and 10 times more likely to be unable to pay for medications.

(Reporting by Steve Holland; Editing by Jamie Freed)

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By David Morgan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is due to begin voting this week on a series of spending bills that take aim at culture-war targets, putting it on a collision course with the Democratic-led Senate and increasing the odds of a government shutdown come October.

Before leaving for their August recess on Friday, House lawmakers will consider two Republican appropriations bills that would provide $155.7 billion in discretionary spending for military construction and veterans affairs, and a total of $25.3 billion for agriculture, rural development and the Food and Drug Administration, for the fiscal year beginning Oct 1.

The measures also contain a number of measures that would limit abortion and transgender rights. Hardline conservatives have proposed amendments that would address other hot-button topics including immigration, critical race theory and diversity.

The bills are the first of 12 appropriations measures that lawmakers have been crafting to cover every aspect of government funding.

While the House Appropriations Committee has approved 10 bills so far, all along party lines, its Senate counterpart has moved in an overwhelmingly bipartisan manner to mark up legislation at significantly higher spending levels.

The two chambers have until the end of the current fiscal year on Sept. 30 to pass their respective bills and hammer out compromise legislation or risk a partial government shutdown.

Congress has not enacted 12 appropriations bills on time since fiscal 1997. Last year, spending bills were all crammed in to a sweeping omnibus measure totalling $1.7 trillion.

But Republican leaders could face a challenge even to pass Republican legislation in the House.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy will have to convince hardline Republican members of the House Freedom Caucus and others that appropriations bills will restrain discretionary government spending at a fiscal 2022 level of $1.47 trillion. That is less than he agreed to in a deal with Democratic President Joe Biden just two months ago.

Hardline conservatives warn that they will prevent this week’s measures from reaching the floor by opposing the rule governing debate, unless they are assured that Republican leaders will not try to avoid the spending cuts they seek by redirecting previously allocated money to prop up allocations.

The White House has said that Biden would veto both of this week’s House appropriations bills if they reached his desk. With House Democrats opposing them as well, McCarthy can afford to lose no more than four votes from his 222-212 Republican majority.

“If we don’t agree with the outcome, we’ll vote against the rule and do whatever we have to do,” Representative Ralph Norman, a prominent Freedom Caucus member, said in an interview.

“Our vote is not just two, three people. It’s 20-plus,” he said.

Norman and about a dozen other hardliners shut down the House floor last month to protest the $1.59 trillion spending levels for fiscal 2024 that were contained in the debt ceiling agreement negotiated by Biden and McCarthy.

Republican leaders had initially proposed shifting an estimated $115 billion from existing Democratic programs to buoy spending on party priorities in fiscal 2024. But hardliners want that money used instead to pay down a national debt of more than $31.4 trillion.

About $7.5 billion of the $25.3 billion spending included in this week’s House agriculture bill results from shifts. Without that money, the allocation would drop to $17.8 billion, which Democrats say represents the lowest level of appropriations since fiscal 2007.

(Reporting by David Morgan in Washington; Editing by Scott Malone and Matthew Lewis)

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