Ten House Republicans joined most Democrats on Thursday in rejecting a GOP-sponsored bill aimed at funding the Legislature for fiscal year 2025, throwing an embarrassing setback into GOP leadership’s ambitious plan to pass all 12 annual funding bills before Congress recesses in August.
The bill failed 205-213, with three Democrats voting in favor. It is the fifth proposed fiscal year 2025 budget bill introduced by Republicans. The other four bills passed.
The Republican-led bill is unlikely to become law in its current form, as the Democratic-led Senate will push ahead with its own proposal and the two chambers will ultimately draft a compromise bill, but the House bill makes clear Republican priorities, and House leaders hope that by passing the bill, they can put themselves in a better position to ensure that some of those priorities make it into the final bill.
Republicans say the bill would bring total discretionary funding to about $7 billion, a 5.6% increase over current levels, and would provide increases for Congressional operations, the U.S. Capitol Police, the Congressional Budget Office, the Government Accountability Office and the Library of Congress.
The bill would also cut funding for the Architect of the Capitol, the National Library Service for the Blind and Print-Handicapped, and joint items such as the Joint Economic Committee and the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee that wrote the bill, said ahead of the vote that the bill “strikes a balance in the Legislature’s ability to effectively serve the American people in a fiscally responsible way.”
“It also includes modest increases to ensure the security of our Capitol and the operations of our Capitol Police, as well as the agencies that support us, including the Library of Congress and the Government Accountability Office.”
Democrats have said spending levels in the proposed funding bill are “reasonable” but oppose the entire bill as a partisan “messaging provision.”
“This bill contains provisions that eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs and condone discrimination against the LGBTQI+ community,” Rep. Adriano Espaillat (R-N.Y.), the ranking Democrat on the subcommittee that drafted the bill, said on the House floor Thursday morning.
“This bill removes provisions to eliminate or reduce plastic waste across the legislative branch of government, further contributing to the impacts of climate change. It also removes the requirement that lawmakers lease low-emission vehicles,” he said.
House Republicans are scheduled to vote on the remaining seven bills after the Republican National Convention in Wisconsin next week.
But the second bill faces more challenges, including riders on hot-button areas like abortion that could pose a key test for Republicans in the months leading up to the November election, especially as Democrats continue to attack the other side on reproductive rights.
