Republican negotiators are proposing government spending bills for 2025 that are in line with spending caps agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 while undercutting side deals negotiated by the President Joe Biden White House and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, according to House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla.
Under the GOP proposal, $895 billion is being eyed for defense programs and $710.7 billion for nondefense, totaling $1.6 trillion as a top line for the annual funding bills, reports The Hill.
Cole said the figures line up with spending caps agreed to in the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which had set spending limits for 2024 as part of the agreement suspending the nation’s debt limit while stopping a default.
But the deal also had changes from the White House that would pad funding on the nondefense portion of the law including pulling back billions of dollars of IRS funding to reinvest it in nondefense.
Democrats are calling for the brokered deal to remain in place, saying that nondefense programs must be protected from steep cuts, but hard-line conservatives are saying the deal doesn’t do enough to keep government spending in line.
Cole said the bills that are being planned “will reflect our commitment to strengthening our national defense, supporting the safety and security of the American people, and reining in government to its core mission.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, called on Republicans to “rethink the funding levels they released [and] increase nondefense and defense funding levels by at least one percent as agreed to almost a year ago today.”
She also accused Republicans of leaving at least $75 billion in investments on the table and following “the exact same process we saw play out last year.”
House Republicans, DeLauro said, were “held hostage by their most extreme members [and] led us from one shutdown threat to another. It was messy, chaotic, harmful, and embarrassing for House Republicans who could not pass their own funding bills.”
The notice sent out recently from House Republicans said the latest figures would cut nondefense funding by about 6%.
They further said that the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, State, financial services and general government will experience “significant cuts” of about 10-11%.
The Appropriations Committee hopes to pass all 12 spending bills by the August recess. Cole said there will be two full committee markup sessions next week to discuss subcommittee allocations and funding for military and veterans programs.
Government funding is set to expire in late September.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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