Senate appropriators set higher funding levels than House, setting up standoff

Senate appropriators on Thursday set top-line funding numbers for fiscal 2024 at higher levels than their counterparts in the House, teeing up a fight between the two chambers.

But senators were hardly on the same page either, adopting the subcommittee allocations in a party-line vote during a meeting of the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The adopted funding levels adhered to the spending caps prescribed in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which was the result of a lengthy negotiation between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to prevent the government from defaulting on its debt. It was signed into law earlier this month after passing both chambers on a bipartisan basis.

Statutory caps in new budget authority were set at $886.3 billion for defense and at $703.7 billion for nondefense, for a total of $1.59 trillion. 

Senate appropriators from both parties expressed frustration with the budget and debt ceiling deal but also stressed the importance of abiding by its spending caps. 

“Now, I know members on both sides of the aisle including myself are concerned about the really challenging top lines in the debt ceiling agreement that we have to now work with. This is not an agreement I would have made, and, as I said on the floor, when the Senate considered this legislation, I’m worried about how it will limit our ability to make necessary investments in our country’s future,” Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in her opening remarks Thursday. 

“But we have a critical job as appropriators and as members of Congress, and I’m determined to get this done, and I know Vice Chair [Susan] Collins [R-Maine] is as well,” she added, noting that she agrees with colleagues on both sides of the aisle about the challenges specifically of the defense funding levels in the deal. 

Republicans, meanwhile, expressed concern that the caps for defense funding were too low.

“While I’m pleased that an agreement was negotiated earlier this month to prevent what would have been a catastrophic default, I remain concerned that the new debt limit law caps regular defense funding in fiscal year 2024 at the inadequate level requested by the president, which fails to meet the security challenges facing our nation,” Collins said.

She added: “I very much appreciate all the work the chair has put into developing these allocations so that the committee can begin processing bills. Nevertheless, due to the inadequacy of funding for Homeland Security and the need for additional defense funding, unfortunately, I cannot support the 302B allocations.”

Murray and Collins both doubled down on their commitment to return to regular order and pass appropriations bills out of committee. They also committed to preventing any continuing resolutions, which have been standard practice for legislators who have frequently missed the Sept. 30 deadline to pass government spending.

House Republicans have taken a different approach, announcing last week that they would mark up their appropriations bills to levels lower than what was agreed to in the debt ceiling deal between McCarthy and Biden. Feeling pressure from his right flank, McCarthy has said those levels in the deal reflect the ceiling, not the floor. 

The issue heated up during a House GOP hearing last week, during which Democrats accused Republicans of going back on the deal.

“Do you think any of us would have made a deal if we thought your [2022] number was the deal? What kind of deal is that? What kind of respect for yourselves is that?” said Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, at the hearing last week.