Senate Democrats To Markup FY25 Bills Without Agreement On Topline Numbers

Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) confirmed in a speech today that the Senate will begin marking up FY2025 spending bills after the July 4 recess, despite lacking a bipartisan agreement on topline spending numbers.

• House Republicans have begun work on their versions of the bills, casting aside limits imposed by the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, in favour of increased defence spending and lower nondefence spending.
• Note: The FRA, negotiated by President Biden and former Speaker Kevin McCarthy set pledged a 1% increase in both defence and nondefence spending for FY2025, in return for raising the debt limit.
• Murray said: “...every Senator calling to boost defense spending alone is seriously missing the point, and any Senator who thinks I will let us leave nondefense spending behind is seriously misreading the situation.”
• Murray’s comments suggest that the Senate will similarly markup bills outside the scope of the FRA putting the House and Senate 10s of billion of dollars apart and making the prospect of bipartisan approach to appropriations remote.
• With government funding set to expire on October 1, Congress will almost certainly have to legislate a Continuing Resolution to punt funding through the general election. This raises concerns that the FY2025 appropriations process could be at least as challenging as FY2024 when Congress pushed the government to the brink of shutdown on four occasions. It will also be complicated by another round of negotiations to raise the debt limit when the suspension enacted by Biden and McCarthy is lifted on January 2.