The powerful Senate Appropriations Committee remains on schedule to consider its first package of fiscal 2025 budget proposals next week, even as Republicans and Democrats struggle to reach an overall agreement on how to fund the government for much of next year.
The committee will consider annual budget plans for the Departments of Agriculture, Veterans Affairs, Food and Drug Administration, Rural Development, Military Construction and the Legislative Branch.
The bill covers three of 12 annual spending bills that negotiators are aiming to get out of committee over the summer as both chambers work to speed up fiscal 2025 funding efforts ahead of a late September shutdown deadline.
The committee will also consider appropriations for each bill at a full committee meeting next Thursday, a vote that comes as Republican and Democratic lawmakers have yet to agree on a total budget for fiscal 2025.
But the funding plan, due to be released by the committee in the coming weeks, is expected to be much more bipartisan in nature than the fiscal year 2025 spending plans that have been debated in the House so far.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed three bills outlining the fiscal year 2025 budgets for the Departments of Homeland Security, Defense, and State. However, they passed on mostly party-line votes, as many Democrats strongly opposed the House Republicans’ budget proposal, slamming it as a “poison pill” loaded with partisan riders.
Democrats also argue the bill’s funding levels undermine a bipartisan agreement reached last year between the White House and Republican leaders to raise the debt ceiling and set new spending limits.
On the Senate side, Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) stressed the need for even increases for both defense and non-defense programs in fiscal year 2025.
“The Appropriations Committee has held nearly 40 hearings to date on funding needs for FY25. We’ve debated exactly what we need to keep our country strong, secure, and competitive,” she said last month.
“And the big takeaway from these hearings is [Fiscal Responsibility Act] “The FY24 cap has already caused significant distress and serious challenges, and the FY25 cap is grossly inadequate,” she said.
