WASHINGTON (SPECTRUM NEWS) — Washington just narrowly avoided another government shutdown by passing two costly spending bills Tuesday afternoon with bipartisan support.

But battles over the 2020 budget are continuing on Capitol Hill even though the federal funds plan could soon reach the president’s desk.

The House voted on Tuesday to OK $1.4 trillion in spending next year.

A domestic appropriations package cleared the chamber with a 297-120 vote while the second, a bundle on defense spending, passed 280-138.

But Wisconsin lawmakers had lukewarm responses to the spending plan’s passage.

“As a country that’s over 23 trillion in debt, $1.4 trillion in spending is irresponsible and I voted against it,” said Rep. Bryan Steil, R-Janesville.

Congressman Steil joined Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Menomonee Falls, Mike Gallagher, R-Green Bay and Glenn Grothman,R-Glenbeulah in voting against both bills despite bipartisan support from their Republican colleagues.

They also took issue with the short window they had to review the plan.

Rep. Gallagher took to Twitter to blast Congress for giving them lawmakers less than 24 hours to consider the measure.

“More than $1.3 trillion in spending, yet there is no way anyone has read these bills,” Rep. Gallagher wrote in a tweet.

The House Appropriations Committee released a several-thousand-page-long document outlining the budget the night before the vote.

“Our spending process here in Washington is broken and we need to have an entire rehab of the federal spending process to get our entire rehab of the federal spending process to get our spending under control,” said Rep. Steil.

Some Wisconsin Democrats were also unsatisfied.

While Rep. Ron Kind, D-La Crosse voted for the defense spending bill, he voted against the domestic spending bill.
Meanwhile, Reps. Gwen Moore, D-Milwaukee and Mark Pocan, D-Madison voted opposite of Kind.

Rep. Pocan says he voted against the funds in the defense bill earmarked for a border wall. The spending bill allots $1.3 billion for border security.

“We cannot and will not support more funding for President Trump’s immoral mass detention policies and unchecked and wasteful Pentagon spending,” said Rep. Pocan.