The Labor-HHS bill advanced out of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday. The vote was 31-25, with all Democrats present opposed to the bill, which cuts spending by 11 percent compared to enacted FY 24 levels. The House Appropriations Committee’s press release also provides an overview of the markup and may be accessed here. The bill, report, amendments, and a four-page summary is available here.
House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) said Democrats will accept nothing less than a one percent increase for Labor-HHS, and each of the other bills. DeLauro released an updated fact sheet on revised subcommittee allocations, more fact sheets regarding the Labor-HHS bill, and sent a letter to her Democratic colleagues in which she again called for at least $786 billion in nondefense funding, said every additional dollar for defense will be matched by a dollar for nondefense, and stated the House Republican bills cut nondefense spending by more than $52 billion from FY 24 and leave more than $60 billion nondefense funding on the table.
Senate Appropriations Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) and Ranking Member Susan Collins (R-ME) agreed to add $34.5 billion in emergency spending. Of that amount, $21 billion would go to defense and $13.5 billion would go to domestic and foreign aid accounts. The additional emergency funds, and additional adjustments from the side deal negotiated last summer as part of the debt limit deal, could bring defense spending to $30 billion (3.4 percent) above FY 24, and bring nondefense spending at least $20 billion (2.7 percent) above FY 24. This differs significantly to House appropriations bills, in which defense would receive a one percent increase and nondefense would receive a six to seven percent cut compared to FY 24. Chair Cole said yesterday that he believes defense programs need more funding.
Both chambers of Congress are out next week for the Republican National Convention. House leaders hope to pass their Labor-HHS on the House floor prior to August recess, and Senate Appropriations Chair Murray has passed three bills in full committee, and the Labor-HHS bill is one of nine more FY 25 bills that need to be considered in full committee.