Let the next Congress fund 2025
It took the Republican majority in the House of Representatives six months and two speakers to fully fund the government for fiscal 2024.
Rather than repeat the same drama for 2025, Congress should pass a continuing resolution that fully funds the government until March. In doing so, Congress will give the public the opportunity to elect a new president, House, and Senate, giving them more control over the federal government’s spending priorities.
It would be different if the House and Senate were diligently working to pass appropriations bills with the intent to fund the federal government fully through regular order. But they are not. The House has passed just one of its 12 needed appropriations bills, and the Senate has passed none. With fewer than a dozen legislative days before the summer recess, these numbers are not expected to change.
The House and Senate have had their chance to act responsibly and pass a full year of government funding through regular order, and they have failed. This means whatever long-term spending deal is brokered before the end of September will be done behind closed doors with far more input from K Street lobbyists than from voters and other constituents.
Considering this Congress’s failure to do its job, the next administration should not be handicapped by a funding deal in which it has no say.
Appropriations bills have never been just about controlling the level of federal government spending. Key policy decisions have always been made with the power of the purse. But in recent years, as partisanship has made it difficult to pass other nonessential legislation, spending bills have taken on extra importance as one of the few areas Congress puts its imprint on federal policy.
President Joe Biden’s abysmal immigration policy easily ranks as among the most destructive of his administration, and if he is voted out in November, reversing his disastrous policies will be a top priority of the new administration. If the government is not yet funded through fiscal 2025, Congress and the White House will be well positioned to use the federal budget as a driver of policy change at the border. This could include funding deportation flights, building a wall at the southern border, and expanding a Border Patrol that has been decimated by Biden’s lack of respect for rank-and-file agents.
Billions of dollars also flow to government programs ranging from education to healthcare, housing, and infrastructure. Each of these areas is primed for reforms that would be much easier to accomplish if the new administration and Congress had the opportunity to write the budget funding its first year in office.
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The first 100 days of a new presidential term and a new Congress are typically when elected officials are most eager to capitalize on the mandate delivered by voters. By waiting until next year to fund the government for fiscal 2025, Congress and the new president will be better positioned to respond to the verdict voters deliver this November in the presidential and congressional elections.
By waiting until next year to fund the government, the new Congress will truly deliver a “people’s budget.”
