After the August recess, Congress will be returning in September with a full plate to pass appropriations bills or more likely a short-term funding bill known as continuing resolution (CR) to avoid a government shutdown ahead of the Sept. 30 fiscal-year deadline.
The House has passed only one appropriations bill – the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill, which the White House threatened to veto due to cuts to important programs such as climate change and diversity initiatives. Other bills the House has tackled in committee come in at spending levels as low as those in fiscal 2007.
The House Freedom Caucus, in addition to insisting on draconian cuts, has also published a list of social agenda items they want to see in a funding bill, including personnel policies at the Pentagon, funding for Ukraine, and activities they object to at the Justice Department.
The Senate has stuck pretty close to the spending limits agreed to in the debt ceiling deal in June. The proposed spending limits are lower than our union would like but far more reasonable than what the House has proposed, although they have agreed to go above the limits for some emergency spending.
“Senate Appropriations has marked up all 12 appropriations bills, and they have the challenge of getting them through, alone or combined in an omnibus/minibus by September 30th,” said AFGE Legislative and Political Department Director Julie Tippens. “Expect fireworks between the House and Senate as they work to agree to a short-term spending deal and avoid an early October government shutdown.”
AFGE is urging Congress to ensure adequate funding for all agencies, especially those facing deep cuts in the House such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the Social Security Administration. Given the very low prospects for passing all 12 bills in September, AFGE is urging passage of a clean CR by September 30 so Congress can work on a full-year funding bill before the end of the year.
On the pay front, President Biden earlier this year recommended that military personnel and federal employees receive an average 5.2% pay adjustment in 2024. Currently, prospects for this pay adjustment look bright because neither the Senate nor the House in their respective bills funding the military and general government would block President Biden from authorizing this pay adjustment later this year. But it will ultimately depend on a final spending deal that allows the 5.2% adjustment to take effect in January.
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