Policy Backgrounders

FY2025 Federal Budget Update

August 29, 2024

With the new fiscal year beginning October 1, Congress has made some progress towards completing the appropriations process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. House Republicans set a goal of passing all 12 appropriations bills, approving the bills for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Defense, Homeland Security, State and Foreign Operations, and Interior and Environment. The Senate has been more methodical, employing a bipartisan approach to pass 11 bills in the Senate Appropriations Committee that have yet to receive a full Senate vote. Congress will almost certainly enact a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the Federal government through at least December as negotiations continue.

• Republicans in the House pursued a party line approach to pass all 12 bills in the Appropriations Committee, incorporating significant spending cuts and conservative policy riders.
• House leadership attempted to pass each spending bill out of the House floor before the August recess but succeeded only in passing five bills that are unlikely to be considered in the Senate given the lack of bipartisan consensus.    
• The Senate has successfully employed a bipartisan approach to pass 11 spending bills in the Senate Appropriations Committee with strong bipartisan majorities.
• Nevertheless, none of the bills has received a Senate floor vote and a significant gap in the topline numbers remains between the spending bills considered by the Senate and the House.
• Next month, Congressional leadership must decide the length of a CR to keep the government open while negotiators complete the FY2025 budget process, setting up a series of crucial fiscal deadlines at the turn of the calendar year.