Senate negotiators advance more than half of government funding projects for 2025

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed its second batch of government funding legislation, approving seven of the 12 annual spending bills for fiscal year 2025 overall.

The four funding bills advanced with bipartisan support, although both sides wavered during a Thursday session on a range of issues ranging from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to aid for Palestinian refugees.

The projects provide more than $200 billion in funding for the departments of Justice (DOJ), Commerce (DOC), Transportation (DOT), Interior (DOI), State (DOS), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Environmental Protection . Agency (EPA).

The powerful funding committee approved its first batch of funding bills earlier this month, covering hundreds of billions of dollars for the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the legislative power, which also covers activities in the Chamber and the Senate.

The DOJ’s annual funding bill, one of the largest of the group considered Thursday, provides more than $70 billion in discretionary funding, a $5.2 billion increase over current levels, according to a summary of the project. The bill also covers funding for DOC and science agencies, incentives for the National Science Foundation, climate research and weather satellite construction at NOAA, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and the Office on Violence Against Women.

The bill advanced out of committee on a 26-3 vote, with Sen. Joe Manchin (DW.Va.) joining two Republicans in voting no while expressing concerns about NOAA’s proposed ship speed rules.

“In 2022, NOAA proposed a rule that would require small recreational boats between 35 and 65 feet long to travel at speeds below 10 knots for up to seven months of the year,” he said of the measureadding “NOAA says this is the only thing that will protect the endangered North Atlantic right whale.”

“Let me be clear: This rule would absolutely devastate the entire recreational boating and fishing industry,” he said. “This will force ship operators to navigate rough waters at dangerously low speeds and would be economically disastrous for communities that depend on ocean tourism. It’s ill-conceived and over-the-top.”

Senators also debated an amendment proposed by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), which the senator argued sought to “prohibit law enforcement funding provided by this committee from being canceled without our committee’s approval.”

“In fiscal year 2023, more than $11 million in funds provided by this committee for law enforcement were diverted to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into Republican presidential candidates,” he said. Republicans vigorously criticized Smith’s prosecution of former President Trump.

Senators also had a lengthy debate over the United Nations agency that provides aid to Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, as the committee considered the State Department’s annual funding bill. The issue was also a point of contention earlier this year when both sides negotiated funding for the 2024 fiscal year.

That fiscal year 2025 bill, which additionally covers dollars for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), calls for more than $60 billion in funding, with increases for DOS and USAID operations.

The committee approved more than $98 billion in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2025 for the annual HUD and DOT funding bill, while also increasing funding for the Maritime Administration, unemployment assistance grants, cap and tenant-based Section 8 vouchers.

Tribal programs and schools, Indian Health Service see funding increases in the fiscal 2025 DOI funding bill, which calls for more than $44 billion in funding, with Democrats also highlighting increases for EPA programs and other offices.

The bills are in sharp contrast to funding plans being worked out in the GOP-led House, where Republicans on Wednesday approved a spending bill proposing a 20 percent cut in EPA funding, along with other policy measures that Democrats called “poison pills.” ”

There is also a funding gap between the bills being passed in both chambers, as House Democrats accuse Republicans of shortchanging non-defense programs in their bills, while Senate negotiators say they have closed a bipartisan agreement to increase funding on its measures beyond agreed budget limits. last year.

Congress currently has until the end of September, when the 2025 fiscal year is scheduled to begin, to fund the government, and members on both sides recognize that a stopgap measure will be needed to avoid a shutdown as Lawmakers fall behind on their annual funding work.

The House has passed just five of its annual funding bills and the full Senate has yet to pass any.

Sen. Jerry Moran (Kan.), an appropriator and top Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, also shared concerns about funding shortfalls that lawmakers could have to address sooner rather than later.

“We recently learned from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and [the Office of Management and Budget]a mandatory funding shortfall of approximately $3 billion in its compensation and pension and adjustment benefits accounts for FY ’24 and a discretionary funding shortfall of approximately $12 billion in its health care accounts for FY ’24 25,” he said, while criticizing both offices for presenting the information only after senators advanced legislation this month to fund the VA for the 2025 fiscal year.

“The VA now asserts that 7 million veterans and survivors are at risk of not receiving their benefit payments on October 1, a date when there are very few days we will be here by then, if Congress does not act before the September 20th,” he said.

In a statement responding to Moran’s comments on Thursday, VA press secretary Terrence Hayes said the agency is “delivering more care and more benefits to more veterans than ever before” under “much of the historic Act PACT”.

“These results are life-changing for veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors, and VA will continue to press to ensure they receive the care and benefits they deserve,” Hayes told The Hill, while pointing to increases in enrollment for Veterans Assistance VA doctor, jumps in claims and other factors.

“These important outcomes for veterans and survivors have exceeded even the most aggressive projections and expectations. Because of this, VA needs Congress to provide $2.883 billion in mandatory benefit funds for FY 2024 and $11,971 in FY 2025 for medical care.”

The Hill has reached out to OMB for comment.

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story