The House passed the first of its 12 annual spending bills on Wednesday, marking the beginning of the drawn-out and likely partisan battle to finalize the budget for the 2025 fiscal year as Republicans and Democrats already disagree on measures being brought to the negotiating table.
Lawmakers voted 209-197 to advance the appropriations bill for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, the first spending bill to pass the lower chamber under the regime of newly elected Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK). The bill passed largely along party lines, with only four Democrats joining nearly all Republicans in backing the measure — making it likely dead on arrival in the Democratic-led Senate.
Even if the spending bill did manage to pass the upper chamber, the White House has already vowed to veto the measure should it reach President Joe Biden’s desk, accusing House Republicans of abandoning the deal struck by the president and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) last summer.
“Rather than respecting their agreement and taking the opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process to build on last year’s bills, House Republicans are again wasting time with partisan bills that would result in deep cuts to law enforcement, education, housing, health care, consumer safety, energy programs that lower utility bills and combat climate change, and essential nutrition services,” the White House said in a statement earlier this week.
The $378 billion spending bill typically garners bipartisan support and is among the quickest to pass the lower chamber. However, this year’s iteration contains a number of Republican-led policy riders that are already being soundly rejected by Democrats. Many of those riders would undo VA policies to provide abortions in the case of rape or incest, as well as implement a ban on gender-affirmation care for transgender veterans.
House Republicans have decried Biden’s veto threat, accusing the president of prioritizing “liberal policies” over funding veteran’s programs.
“This veto threat shows that our president cares more about liberal policies than he does about honoring the promise that we have made to our veterans,” said Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS). “I hope and I believe that all members should support this legislation and that the House will stand with our veterans who have sacrificed to serve and protect this great nation we call home.”
The policy riders included in the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs budget is only a foreshadowing of the likely bitter and partisan fights to come for the remaining spending bills. House Republicans have already vowed to push for provisions in other appropriations bills to cut funding for “abusive federal law enforcement agencies,” including special counsel Jack Smith, who is heading former President Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 election interference and classified documents criminal cases.
That language, which is expected to be included in the Justice Department spending bill, would also target Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in Georgia and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who both have opened cases against Trump.
The passage of the first spending bill comes after the GOP unveiled an aggressive schedule to pass their annual spending bills over the summer, hoping to get the budget finalized before the November election and avoid a repeat of the intraparty fallout that resulted in last year’s appropriations process.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced his proposed schedule to GOP lawmakers during a closed-door meeting last month that would complete all 12 appropriations bills in June and July, starting with Military Construction and Veterans Affairs in the week of June 3. Under the schedule, lawmakers would be finished by Aug. 1
The ambitious timeline will also serve as a test for the House GOP as they look to prove their leadership ability to pass government funding bills despite not being able to do so last year until six months into fiscal 2024. The appropriations bills are also likely to reignite intraparty tensions over controversial policy proposals that plagued House Republicans last year.
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The House Appropriations Committee unveiled its proposed funding limits last month, with the overall totals coming in under the top-line agreement that was set during negotiations last year. But that proposal is unlikely to make it far in the Senate where party leaders from both sides of the aisle have expressed a desire for higher allocations.
Even if the House does manage to pass all 12 of its appropriations bills before its annual August recess, it’s not clear whether the Senate will act with such haste. Senate leaders and the White House could seek to delay the process until after the November election when it’s more clear who will be president in 2025 and which party will be in control of the upper chamber.