The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday approved its first batch of government funding bills for fiscal year 2025, giving the green light to hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending for much of next year.
The bills lay out year-round funding proposals for the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the Legislative Branch, which also covers operations in the House and Senate .
The bills passed with unanimous support as both sides praised the highlights.
The largest bill in the batch would fund the VA, military construction and related agencies, requiring more than $129 billion for non-defense discretionary funding and about $210 billion for mandatory funding. The bill also sets aside about $20 billion for military construction and family housing through most of 2025.
Negotiators say the agricultural and rural development funding bill for fiscal year 2025 would allow for an $821 million increase compared to current levels, with more than $27 billion proposed in total for the spending measure. . This includes increases in areas such as the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), rental assistance and agricultural research, among other areas.
The committee also approved $7 billion in discretionary funding for the legislative branch, including increases for the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service and the Library of Congress – while also advocating the freezing of member salary increases.
The approvals come on the same day that House GOP negotiators took a victory lap after their funding committee released the last of its 12 annual funding bills for fiscal year 2025 this week.
“We could go to conference now, as soon as you get them through committee,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said alongside the GOP’s big-spending cardinals on Thursday.
“We can meet with our counterparts in the United States Senate when they are ready to do so and begin the process to arrive at what will ultimately be a bipartisan product.”
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Thursday that a bipartisan agreement was reached in the Upper House to increase funding beyond budget caps agreed to last year, after both sides struggled to reach agreement on the general funding for fiscal year 2025.
“There will be no shortage of serious funding challenges we will face in the coming year,” Murray said. “I have made it clear, along with many members on both sides of the aisle, that the 1% increase in funding that the [Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA)] provides for both non-defense and defense and FY25 is simply inadequate.
“Therefore, I am pleased that Vice President Collins and I have reached a bipartisan agreement to provide much-needed additional funding for both the non-defense and defense sectors. The agreement will provide an additional $13.5 billion in emergency funding for non-defense programs and $21 billion for defense programs beyond FRA levels.”
The move means a wider gap between bills that the Senate and House will bring to eventual bipartisan negotiations, potentially later this year, as they prepare to reach an agreement on fiscal year 2025 funding.
The bills that were released by the House committee were also more partisan in nature compared to the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to pass both measures.
Currently, Congress has until the end of September, when fiscal year 2024 is expected to end.
But members on both sides have already acknowledged that a stopgap measure will be needed to maintain government funding beyond the November elections, as lawmakers have little time to make progress. The outcome of the races is also expected to have an impact on what government funding could look like for fiscal year 2025, as either side could see a lot of leverage as a result of bicameral funding negotiations.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
