Congressional Appropriations Update – July 2024

This morning, the full Senate Appropriations Committee marked up and favorably reported its Fiscal Year 2025 Military Construction-VA, Agriculture-FDA, and Legislative Branch Appropriations bills. These were the first spending bills to be considered in the Senate. As was the case for FY24, it appears the Senate will skip subcommittee consideration and markup up all 12 of its appropriations bills at the full committee level. After a recess next week, Senate markups will resume July 25th.

Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) criticized the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s capped 1% percent increase to non-defense spending as inadequate to keep up with inflation and programmatic needs. The Chair and Vice Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) have instead opted to provide an additional $13 billion for non-defense spending and an additional $21 billion for defense beyond the FRA levels. Vice Chair Collins also made a point to highlight that, under the FRA, if any portion of the federal government is being funded by a short-term continuing resolution after January 1, the discretionary spending caps will reset to levels 1% less than the FY23 enacted amounts – a significant cut. For example, for defense spending, this would amount to a 5% overall cut.

Perhaps most notably of the three bills considered, the Senate provides $27.04 billion in its FY25 Agriculture-FDA bill – an $821 million or roughly 3% increase from FY24. The bulk of that increase – $667 million – is to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). The bill also provides $1.019 billion, a $68 million increase over FY24, for conservation programs and prioritizes multi-benefit projects in the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations program.

In the House, 4 bills (Defense, Homeland Security, Military Construction-VA, and State-Foreign Operations) have now been passed on the floor. A 5th bill funding the Legislative Branch was voted down on the floor this afternoon after 10 Republicans joined with Democrats to block the measure, citing concerns about higher funding levels and a longstanding pay freeze for members of Congress. The remaining 7 have all been reported out of committee. These bills (Agriculture-FDA, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, Financial Services, Interior-Environment, Labor-HHS-Education, and Transportation-HUD) are expected to see floor votes during the weeks of July 22nd and 29th.

Although the overall spending amounts in the GOP-led House’s appropriations bills are relatively flat, cuts to individual agencies can be found throughout. In the FY25 Interior-Environment bill, agencies see the following cuts from the previous fiscal year:

- Environmental Protection Agency: -20%

- White House Council on Environmental Quality: -78%

- Bureau of Land Management: -8.4%

- Fish and Wildlife Service: -8.4%

- National Park Service: -6.3%

- Forest Service: -3% for non-fire programs, but +4% for Wildland Fire Management

The House’s Interior-Environment bill is also stocked with controversial policy riders requiring the Secretary of Interior to resume offshore oil and gas lease sales and blocking EPA regulations on vehicle emissions.

Despite steady progress in the House, expectations that any of the 12 appropriations bills will be enacted before the end of the current fiscal year are low. The consensus is that final passage of FY25 spending bills won’t occur until after elections in November, and possibly not until after the new year.

Many of the House’s proposed cuts are likely to be rolled back during negotiations with the Senate. However, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is likely to face pressure from hardliners in his conference to include conservative priorities after his perceived caving to Senate demands in an omnibus bill last year. The legislation that’s ultimately signed by the President for FY25 will be heavily impacted by elections in November, which could produce new majorities in one or both chambers.