Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chairman of the powerful House Budget Committee, on Thursday previewed the funding levels with which GOP negotiators plan to craft their annual government spending bills for the 2025 fiscal year.
Republicans are proposing about $895 billion for defense programs and $710.7 billion for nondefense programs, for a total of about $1.6 trillion for the government’s 12 annual funding bills.
Cole said the figures were consistent with spending caps agreed to under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, which set spending caps on fiscal year 2025 spending as part of a broader agreement to suspend the country’s debt limit and prevent government bankruptcy.
However, when that deal was struck with then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the White House also outlined other changes to enhance funding on the non-defense side that were not included in the law, including repealing billions of dollars in IRS funding with the aim of reinvesting it in non-defense programs.
Democrats have insisted that the entire deal must remain intact to protect non-defense programs from deeper cuts than party members negotiated last year when they voted with Republicans to pass the debt limit deal.
But that overall deal faced fierce opposition last year from conservative hardliners who say it doesn’t go far enough to rein in government spending.
In his statement Thursday, Cole said the bills the committee plans to develop and pass in the coming weeks “comply with the laws of the Fiscal Responsibility Act – without side deals – and focus resources where they are needed most.”
“Our FY25 process will reflect our commitment to strengthening our national defense, supporting the security of the American people and keeping the government focused on its core mission,” he said.
As a result, the latest announcement said the proposed figures would represent an enhance in defense funding of about $9 billion, while non-defense programs would be “effectively cut by 6 percent.”
Republicans also say the cuts won’t be “evenly distributed,” pointing out that subcommittees that fund agencies such as the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State, Financial Services and State will require “significant cuts from 10 to 11 percent will be received”. .”
Other subcommittees, the release said, would receive “smaller non-defense cuts that reflect Republican priorities in the bills.”
Cole also presented the committee’s schedule for the coming weeks, which includes two full committee meetings scheduled next week to consider subcommittee appropriations and funding for military construction and veterans programs.
The goal is for the committee to pass all twelve bills by the August recess.
Congress has until the end of September — when current federal funding runs out — to pass legislation that keeps the lights on or risks a shutdown.
But lawmakers are expected to need a stopgap funding solution in September after completing their fiscal 2024 funding work months behind schedule.
