From left: Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Becca Balint and Sen. Peter Welch. Photos by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerVermont’s congressional delegation was divided in its support for an eleventh-hour deal reached over the weekend that averted a government shutdown and that will send billions in aid to municipalities and farmers impacted by recent natural disasters.U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., voted in favor of the deal, which will fund the government through mid-March 2025 while Congress continues to debate its appropriations for the full 2025 federal fiscal year, which started in October. The deal also includes about $100 billion in disaster aid and renews major agriculture and food security legislation called the Farm Bill, among other policy measures.Congress approved the spending package early Saturday morning after days of chaotic negotiations were nearly thwarted by President-elect Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser, Elon Musk. President Joe Biden signed the deal into law later that morning.Overall, the package allocates about $30 billion to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and $2 billion to the U.S. Small Business Administration to support ongoing natural disaster recovery efforts in Vermont and other states, lawmakers said. That small business funding will allow the federal government to fulfill about $6 million in disaster loans it had already approved for applicants in Vermont, Welch noted in a statement to VTDigger Monday.The package is also estimated to provide about $110 million in emergency funding to Vermont to repair or rebuild damaged roads. It’s expected, too, to provide about $15 million in economic assistance to farms in the state, with money set aside for crops, timber, livestock and farm infrastructure lost during the flooding in 2023 and 2024. READ MORE As Congress backs flood control projects in Vermont and other states, major disaster relief hangs in the balance by Shaun Robinson December 20, 2024, 5:18 pmDecember 20, 2024, 6:00 pm The legislation also includes $500 million for child care centers that suffered damage in natural disasters, including in Vermont, in recent years, Welch said in the statement.“I’m proud that a bipartisan group of my colleagues found a way to work together, through the chaos of the past week, to get this over the finish line for families counting on this relief,” the Vermont senator said in a statement shortly after Saturday’s vote. Balint, meanwhile, said “these dollars will help Vermonters build back stronger and more resilient from the devastating flooding we faced the last two years.”But Vermont’s independent U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders voted against the deal. He said in a statement that while he supported the disaster relief provision, he rejected the overall deal because of what wasn’t in it — or, rather, what had been taken out. An initial deal reached by Democratic and Republican leaders included a host of other proposals, including reforms to how pharmacy benefit managers — middlemen between drug manufacturers and insurance companies — can operate, as well as a measure aimed at protecting the benefits of people who rely on food stamps from theft.Sanders said the original deal also would have expanded access to primary health care and care for mental health and substance use disorder, among other measures.Lawmakers stripped down the spending package, though, after Trump and Musk — the latter in a barrage of social media posts — tanked support for the initial deal last Wednesday, saying it was laden with unnecessary government spending. The initial agreement also included salary increases for members of Congress.Trump had also, unsuccessfully, urged lawmakers to insert a provision into the spending package to raise or abolish the maximum amount of money the federal government can borrow to pay its debts, known as the debt ceiling, before he takes office in January. But on Thursday, the House rejected a revised package that included raising the debt limit, leaving Johnson scrambling on Friday. The government was slated to partially shut down Saturday morning if lawmakers did not approve stopgap funding by that point.  “As a result of Musk’s intervention, fewer people will be able to obtain the services they need at community health centers and there will be fewer doctors and nurses in rural America and underserved areas,” Sanders said in a statement early Saturday. “It appears that from now on no major legislation can be passed without the approval of the wealthiest person in this country,” he added. “That’s not democracy, that’s oligarchy.” Read the story on VTDigger here: Peter Welch, Becca Balint back government funding package, with Bernie Sanders against.