Congress Narrowly Passes CR to Extend Funding to March

As reported by COSSA, Congress previously passed two stop-gap measures to allow additional time to complete the fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations bills. On January 18, the day before the last continuing resolution (CR) deadline, the House and Senate struck a deal to extend funding to March. Like the previous CR, the new stop-gap measure includes “tiered deadlines” for the unpassed spending bills. The deadline for the first tranche of bills (the Military Construction-VA, Agriculture, Energy-Water and Transportation-HUD bills) has been extended to March 1. The remaining bills (including Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Commerce, Justice Science, which fund most science agencies) now have a deadline of March 8.

Lawmakers do not appear any closer to an agreement despite top-line spending levels agreed upon earlier this month at $1.66 trillion (see previous COSSA coverage). If Congress is unable to strike a funding deal for FY 2024, it is likely they will finish the year with a yearlong CR. If a yearlong CR is enacted, nondefense discretionary spending would see cuts of roughly 5 percent as a result of the previously passed Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (H.R. 3746) (see previous COSSA coverage). To complicate things further, as previously reported, the Biden Administration is expected to release its budget request for FY 2025 in February or March. With the 2024 elections around the corner, the appropriations process is anticipated to continue to be contentious for both FY 2024 and FY 2025.

Stay tuned to COSSA’s continued coverage of the appropriations process.