The US Senate approved the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2022 (HR 2471), a USD 1.5 trillion spending bill, in an 8 March 2022 vote, and the US House of Representatives is expected to do the same on 9 March 2022.
The 2,741-page measure provides USD 782 billion for defense spending and USD 730 billion for non-defense discretionary spending. Included in those figures is USD 13.6 billion for emergency Ukraine-related defense spending, as well as USD 4 billion to the US State Department to provide assistance to refugees, economic assistance and foreign military assistance and USD 2.8 billion to bolster the US Agency for International Development's (USAID's) immediate humanitarian disaster relief efforts.
The bill's sweeping provisions cover a broad variety of US policies, including language designed to ease the transition of contracts and loans away from the LIBOR benchmark. Its passage comes alongside a shift in focus away from US President Joe Biden's larger economic agenda, which would increase taxes in order to fund initiatives providing healthcare and childcare and combatting climate change.