Senate negotiators voted Thursday to frontload more than $1 trillion in fiscal 2025 government funding, passing four spending bills with overwhelming bipartisan support.
The powerful Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed the bill, which provides funding for the departments of Defense, Energy, Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education, as well as financial services, general government and water development.
The committee had backed away from plans a few days earlier to hold a vote on the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) annual appropriations bill for fiscal year 2025, but today’s passage brings the committee’s vote count to 11 in total.
The defense budget bill, the largest of the budget proposals introduced Thursday, provides more than $850 billion through most of 2025, an increase of more than 3% from the current fiscal year. It includes increases above President Biden’s budget request for the Special Victims Counsel program, Central Command operations and hypersonic testing infrastructure and research.
The committee approved more than $60 billion in funding for the full-year Energy and Water Development funding bill, including money for the Port Maintenance Trust Fund that negotiators touted as a “historic $3.147 billion,” while also increasing funding for the Bureau of Water Reclamation above current levels and increasing funding for the Office of Science and “advanced simulation and computing” at the National Nuclear Security Administration.
Appropriators approved a base discretionary budget of more than $230 billion for the HHS annual spending bill for fiscal year 2025. Agencies that could see increases in the bill, which also includes budgets for the Departments of Labor and Education, include the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Strategic Preparedness and Response Office, the Social Security Administration and some higher education programs.
The full-year Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill also includes about $27.9 billion in funding, including year-over-year increases for the Treasury Department, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, election security grants, the Small Business Administration and other departments.
Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said Thursday that “work on the homeland security bill continues in earnest.”
“This bill provides vital resources to fund important state and local grant programs, including border security, support for the Coast Guard, and support for firefighters,” she said, adding, “It also provides funding for the Secret Service, which deserves further consideration and scrutiny given the recent assassination attempt on President Trump and the change in leadership of the Democratic presidential candidate.”
Her comments came a day after Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), chairman of the subcommittee that writes the Department of Homeland Security’s annual budget, and Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), the top Republican, wrote a letter to Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe pressing for information about the agency’s budget needs.
“Following the assassination attempt on former President Trump, President Biden announced that he would provide Secret Service protection for presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” they wrote. “The two vice presidential nominees will also require protection, which will result in the Secret Service incurring new campaign-related protection costs at a time when it appears to lack sufficient resources to fulfill its security mission.”
But some senators have suggested the bill is seen as one of the toughest to pass and there are further issues that could delay its passage.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-Va.) told The Hill earlier this week that there had been “some frustration,” particularly with the amendment process, and that a vote on immigration could raise concerns for Democrats.
