Senate negotiators advance all 12 funding bills for first time in years
Senate negotiators cleared their last batch of government funding bills out of the Appropriations Committee for the first time in years Thursday, capping off weeks of consideration of billions of dollars in federal spending for most of 2024.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted along bipartisan lines Thursday to send their final four spending bills to the floor, laying out major funding proposals for the Departments of Defense; Interior; Labor; Health and Human Services; Education; and Homeland Security, among other offices.
“There’s more to do: we still have to get these bills passed through the full Senate, and House, and signed into law—and that is our focus moving forward,” Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), chairwoman and vice-chairwoman of the committee, respectively, said in a joint statement.
“However, what this committee has achieved over the last several weeks shows that it is possible for Congress to work together and work through real differences—to find common ground and produce serious, bipartisan bills that can be signed into law,” they added.
The passage marks the first time since 2018 that the committee has passed all 12 annual appropriations bills. Since taking over the committee earlier this year, both Murray and Collins — the first two women ever to lead the panel — have vowed to work to return the panel to “regular order.”
The bills advanced out of committee Thursday totaled more than $1 trillion in proposed funding — a chunk of which is covered by the more than $830 billion in funding approved for the fiscal 2024 defense appropriations bill.
The Pentagon bill, which advanced in a 27-1 vote, paves the way for a pay raise of 5.2 percent for service members, funding increases for warfighter technologist efforts, and plus-ups spending beyond what President Biden requested earlier this year in areas including artificial intelligence, radar upgrades and communications equipment.
Legislation advanced by the full committee to fund the Department of the Interior (DOI), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and related agencies for fiscal 2024 proposed more than $42 billion in total funding.
That included more than $15 billion in total funding for the DOI, including about $1.5 billion for the Bureau of Land Management, more than $1.8 billion for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and nearly $3.5 billion for the National Park Service. Appropriators also highlighted increases for the EPA, tribal programs at the DOI and the Indian Health Service.
Despite leading control of the committee, Democrats agreed to include the decades-old Hyde Amendment in its bill funding the Departments of Labor and Health and Human Services (HHS), despite the party notably forgoing the provision in its first bills last year.
The measure blocks people from using Medicaid or other federal health programs to cover abortion services and has become a major source of partisan conflict in spending over the years.
Its early inclusion this year, though already drawing criticism from advocates who accuse Democrats of backsliding, comes as the party is pushing for the Senate to take the lead in bicameral talks on appropriations with the House later this year.
The fiscal 2024 Labor-HHS appropriations bill calls for more than $224 billion in total funding, proposing more than $110 billion in discretionary funding for the HHS, more than $79 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education, as well as increases for Title I-A grants, the maximum Pell Grant award, early learning programs and the Mental Health Block Grant.
The committee also voted 24-4 to pass the fiscal 2024 Homeland Security appropriations bill, which proposes more than $61 billion in total discretionary funding. That also includes more than $700 million for the U.S. Customs & Border Protection that negotiators say is aimed at stopping the flow of fentanyl, more than $20 billion for the Disaster Relief Fund and a significant boost to Homeland Security Investigations.