Senate negotiators unanimously pass first batch of government funding bills for fiscal 2025

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday passed its first batch of government funding bills for fiscal 2025, greenlighting hundreds of billions of dollars in federal spending for much of next year. 

The bills lay out full-year funding proposals for the departments of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Agriculture, and the Food and Drug Administration, as well as the legislative branch, which also covers operations in the House and Senate.

The bills passed with unanimous support as both sides touted highlights.

The biggest bill in the batch would fund the VA, military construction and related agencies, calling for more than $129 billion for nondefense discretionary funding and roughly $210 billion for mandatory funding. The bill also sets aside about $20 billion for military construction and family housing for most of 2025.

Negotiators say the fiscal 2025 agricultural and rural development funding bill would allow for an $821 million bump compared to current levels, with north of $27 billion proposed overall for the spending measure. That includes increases in areas like the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), rental assistance, and agricultural research, among other areas.

The committee also approved $7 billion in discretionary funding for the legislative branch, including increases for the Government Accountability Office, Congressional Budget Office, the Congressional Research Service and Library of Congress — all the while upholding a freeze on pay increases for members. 

The passages come the same day House GOP negotiators took a victory lap after their funding committee reported out the last of its 12 annual funding bills for fiscal 2025 this week. 

“We could go conference now, once you pass them out of committee,” House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said alongside the chamber’s GOP spending cardinals Thursday.

“We can sit down with our counterparts in the United States Senate when they’re ready to do so and start the process of arriving at what ultimately will be a bipartisan product.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said Thursday that a bipartisan deal was reached in the upper chamber to plus up funding beyond the budget caps agreed to last year after both sides struggled to reach a compromise on overall funding for fiscal 2025. 

“There’s no shortage of serious funding challenges we’re facing in the coming year,” Murray said. “I made clear alongside many members on both sides of the aisle, the 1 percent increasing funding that the [Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA)] provides for nondefense and defense alike and [fiscal 2025] is simply inadequate.

“So, I’m pleased that Vice Chair [Susan] Collins and I reached a bipartisan agreement to provide much-needed additional funding for nondefense and defense alike. The agreement will provide an additional $13.5 billion in emergency funding for nondefense programs and $21 billion for defense programs beyond the FRA levels.”

The move means a wider gap between the bills the Senate and House will bring to eventual bipartisan talks, potentially later this year, when they prepare to hash out a compromise on fiscal 2025 funding. 

The bills that have been reported out of the House committee have also been more partisan in nature compared to the Senate, where 60 votes are needed to pass both measures.

Congress currently has until late September when fiscal 2024 is set to come to a close. 

But members on both sides have already acknowledged a stopgap measure will be needed to keep the government funded beyond the November elections, as lawmakers run short on time to make progress. The outcome of the races is also expected to have an impact on what government funding could look like for fiscal 2025, as either side could see major leverage as a result of bicameral funding talks.