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Category: Appropriations

House Passes Budget Resolution

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On Tuesday, the House of Representatives narrowly passed a Republican budget resolution that would advance much of President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda in one “big, beautiful bill.” After weeks of infighting and doubt surrounding the passage of the resolution, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other House GOP leaders were able to successfully advance the resolution in a 217 to 215 party-line vote. Only one Republican, Rep. Massie (R-KY) defected, citing concerns over measures that would increase the deficit.

House and Senate GOP leaders had been at odds over the strategy behind this legislative package, with Senate leaders preferring a two-pronged approach in which defense, immigration, and energy would be tackled in one bill and taxes in another bill later in the year. House leaders, on the other hand, with the backing of President Trump, stood firmly behind their one-bill approach.

The Senate passed their own version of the resolution last week, so now leaders from both chambers will need to coalesce around a single plan. The largest roadblocks will likely be the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts called for by the House plan, which would be paid for in part by the proposed cuts to programs such as Medicaid and SNAP. Moderates in both chambers have voiced concerns over these provisions, while hardline conservatives have demanded more severe spending cuts to offset the tax plan.

While significant challenges lie ahead for President Trump’s agenda, the passage of the House resolution is a major hurdle that has now been cleared. If House and Senate Republicans can build support behind a single bill, they will unlock the ability to pass it through the reconciliation process which, crucially, is not subject to filibuster in the Senate.

All of this is occurring while top appropriators in both chambers scramble to stave off the government shutdown slated to take effect later this month if a spending agreement is not reached. The continuing resolution reached late last year is set to expire after March 14th, and negotiations appear to have stalled as Democrats seek assurances from congressional Republicans that President Trump will spend any money that is appropriated.

119th Congress: Appropriations/Budget Outlook

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Members of the 119th Congress have officially been sworn in, with President-elect Trump soon to follow. Republicans will now look to navigate a number of important pieces of legislation in the coming months, with slim majorities in both chambers.

To start, the latest Continuing Resolution (CR) for FY2025 passed in late December funds the government through March 14th, meaning some of the immediate attention of this Congress—at least that of the appropriators in both chambers—will be focused on funding the government through the end of the fiscal year.

Since the beginning of the Fiscal Year 2025 on October 1, Congress has passed two short-term spending extensions that maintained levels of government spending from the prior year but punted on the important funding decisions that need to be made for the rest of the fiscal year. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) now face the difficult task of attempting to pass appropriations bills in two sharply divided chambers with small majorities.

Regardless of when Congress finishes the appropriations for FY2025, it will need to turn its attention to the FY2026 process.  It is possible that the relevant committees may start crafting legislation for FY2026 before FY2025 is fully wrapped up.  The FY2025 process started under the Biden Administration, and the new Republican Congressional majorities and the new incoming Trump Administration after the November elections wanted to hold off on finishing it in order to give the new Trump team an opportunity to shape the remainder of the year.  With the vast majority of the FY2025 bill already drafted, it remains to be seen how the negotiations to finish out the year will turn out.  It is against this backdrop that FY2026 will kick off, with Republicans fully in control.  The FY2026 appropriations process will be affected by the incoming Administration’s budget request. The budget is due by the first Monday in February, though this is typically delayed and will almost certainly be late during a transition year.

Additionally, President-elect Trump and GOP leaders in both chambers have stated their intent to pass much of Trump’s agenda through budget reconciliation early in the year, a very exacting and complicated process through which mandatory spending levels must be addressed.  The benefit of this process is that changes being mandated by it can be passed with a simple majority in the Senate, thus avoiding the filibuster. This plan has generated the most attention on the budget front for the new Administration and Congress.  This plan has already been complicated, however, by disagreements within the Republican party.

At the end of the day, in broad terms, the GOP’s goals for reconciliation are to pass immigration and tax legislation as well as bring about changes to other mandatory programs.

With respect to the process, House GOP leaders have spoken in favor of passing one large reconciliation bill, which would include tax, defense, and immigration provisions. House leaders argue that the one-bill approach will build maximum support within the party, and have also noted the difficulty of passing two reconciliation bills in the same year.

Senate GOP leaders, however, believe that a two-pronged approach would put the party in a better position. Passing an initial bill focused on border and security legislation would give Trump an early win, Senate leaders say, while also allowing for more time to construct the complicated and time-consuming changes to tax law to be passed in the second bill.

Trump initially voiced support for the House approach, though he walked back his commitment the next day, saying he was open to either approach. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) publicly shared that party leaders may need several more weeks to agree on a plan. Per Scalise, the party is “moving forward under the guise of one bill…how we do it is a discussion, but what we’re doing is not under discussion. Everybody’s focused on the same thing.”

Both Scalise and Johnson have both stated that they would like to move a reconciliation package through the House by the end of April.

CR Adopted, Government Funded… At Least Through March 14

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Just after midnight Saturday, the Senate cleared by a vote of 85 to 11 the continuing resolution that had been approved by the House just a few hours earlier, sending the measure to The White House for the President’s signature.  The legislative package keeps the government funded through March 14, meaning that Congress will need to tackle the question of how to fund the remainder of FY2025 once again the first part of next year.

Now, It’s the Senate’s Turn

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After a frantic day of discussions, just after 6 PM ET, the House was finally able to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government funded past midnight.  The House leadership brought the bill up under the suspension of the rules, meaning that it needed the support of two-thirds of those Members who voted.  It was eventually agreed to by a vote of 366 to 34, with one Member voting “Present.”

This version of the continuing resolution is a much smaller package than the one that was defeated earlier this week.  Although there are other provisions, its main contents are:  1) an extension of government funding through March 14, 2025; 2) funding for disaster relief; 3) sections related to a set of health-care programs; and 4) one-year extensions of programs funded by the Farm Bill.

It is now up to the Senate to clear the bill and to send it to President Biden’s desk before the clock strikes midnight.

Agencies Have Shutdown Processes in Place

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As a result of past shutdowns and experiences with near shutdowns, agencies have developed policies and procedures to address such occurrences.  The White House Office of Management and Budget maintains a central repository of individual agency policies, available here.