The debt ceiling bill did not rule out the possibility of a funding lapse if no agreement on even a stopgap measure is reached by September 30. Image: Lightspring/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe House this week is set to begin voting on spending bills needed for fiscal year 2024, but the result has mainly been to underscore the deep differences between the parties on agency spending levels and policy matters and increase the threat of a deadlock leading to a partial government shutdown.
With agency spending authority to run out in just two months, the House is taking up two measures that traditionally have been among the easiest of the 12 bills to pass—one covering Agriculture/FDA and related agencies, and one covering the VA and military construction projects.
That is part of a renewed commitment made in the law that suspended the federal debt ceiling to enact spending bills individually rather than to again lump them together into one or several largely worked out by leadership. That law further specified that if any “continuing resolutions” are in effect as of December 31, an automatic budget would kick in, restricting funding supported by both parties. However, that law did not rule out the possibility of a funding lapse if no agreement on even a stopgap measure is reached by September 30.
The difficulty of agreeing on even a stopgap by that date became more apparent as the House brought up the two bills for floor voting. The White House quickly threatened to veto both if they should reach there in their current form, largely because they would fund affected agencies at below the levels allowed in the debt ceiling law—affecting the funding available for employee salaries, among other expenses.
In similar comments on both bills, the White House said that “House Republicans had an opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process, but instead, with just over two months before the end of the fiscal year, are wasting time with partisan bills that cut domestic spending to levels well below the [debt ceiling] agreement and endanger critical services for the American people.”
It also objected to “numerous new, partisan policy provisions” in both including denying funding for agency DEI initiatives in both; a ban on increasing Agriculture Department employment in the national capital area; and restrictions on VA providing abortions and gender-affirming care.
Meanwhile, in reports on the bills, Democrats on the Appropriations Committee called the Agriculture-FDA bill “a dreadful bill that we very strongly oppose” and said the funding levels and policy provisions of the VA-military construction bill “are not workable or sustainable.”
With Congress set to recess next week until September 12, the House likely will take up no bills beyond those two, and the Senate likely none, before that date. The Senate is spending this week on a defense policy bill.
Among other things, that means no further action is likely for now on the general government funding bill, which sets government-wide policies for the federal workplace. Both versions are silent regarding a 2024 federal employee raise, which would allow President Biden to put his recommended 5.2 percent increase into effect by default. Biden likely will issue a message to Congress by the end of August stating that intent, although any law enacted afterward would override it.
The House Appropriations Committee so far has advanced 10 of the bills, all along party lines. The Senate counterpart has approved eight, all on votes that were either unanimous or with only one or two dissenters.
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