Senate's FY25 spending bills gain bipartisan momentum

The Senate on Thursday made progress on advancing bipartisan spending bills for fiscal 2025, though members of both parties acknowledged significant divisions remain between the two sides. 

The chamber’s Appropriations Committee approved three of the 12 annual funding measures Congress must pass each year—those funding the departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as the legislative branch—in unanimous, 27-0 votes. While that marked a significant step forward in the fiscal 2025 process and an accomplishment that has eluded the panel’s House counterpart—which has advanced its bills to date only along partisan lines—the Senate could not come to a bipartisan agreement on how much money to allocate for the remaining nine funding measures. 

The committee did, however, unveil a deal to increase funding for both defense and non-defense agencies above levels agreed to in a two-year budget plan President Biden struck with House Republicans last year. Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, funding for both sides of the ledger are set to increase by just 1% next year. Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, the chair and vice chair of the spending panel, have agreed to boost those totals using “emergency” funding. Non-defense agencies would receive a total of $13.5 billion in extra spending, while the Pentagon would get an extra $21 billion.  

“This additional funding in our bipartisan agreement is crucial,” Murray said. “It will help make sure we can address serious shortfalls, tackle urgent new challenges here at home and abroad, prevent devastating layoffs and cutbacks to services and invest in families and our country's future.”

The three bills were the first the Senate committee put forward and voted on as it has worked to strike bipartisan agreement. It similarly did so last year, though most of those bills never ended up receiving votes on the Senate floor and the boosted funding levels did not make their way into the final agreements. The House, meanwhile, has already approved some of its fiscal 2025 measures on the floor, but Biden has threatened to veto them over the cuts they contain. 

The House suffered a setback on Thursday when its legislative branch bill failed on the House floor. Democrats in the chamber have been nearly unilaterally opposed to each of those bills and on Thursday, 10 conservative members joined them. 

Murray on Thursday warned the 1% boosts provided for under the existing budget deal are insufficient and has previously warned failing to lift them would lead to furloughs and layoffs at many agencies across government. The House has not provided even that level of funding, ignoring parts of the deal they struck with Biden last year to allow for the small increases. Their bills would instead force average cuts of 6% at non-defense agencies. 

The bills the Senate appropriations panel agreed to on Thursday did not yet include the bonus funding Murray and Collins have agreed to as negotiators continue to debate how to divvy up the available funds. The committee approved allocations for each of the 12 bills, but did so along party lines and with an understanding the figures were subject to change as discussions continue. 

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., questioned the wisdom of the committee moving forward before the committee can “get serious” and determine the allocations on a bipartisan basis. 

“We all know these are pretend votes,” Kennedy said. “This is play acting.” 

Collins noted her biggest priority was avoiding an automatic 1% cut from fiscal 2023 levels that would take place if Congress has not agreed to full-year spending bills by Jan. 1. She said she voted against Murray’s allocations because they underfunded the Defense Department and the offsets used to boost spending levels overall. Still, she expressed optimism that the committee was moving in the right direction. 

“We still have a long ways to go, and we'll have to work together to continue to construct bills that can receive bipartisan support,” Collins said. “But today's markup is an important and necessary first step.” 

Congress could ultimately opt to punt the drafting of bicameral funding bills until after the upcoming presidential election, as it did in 2020. Current funding is set to expire at the end of September.