May 02, 2024
FY2025 Appropriations Underway
After finalizing fiscal year (FY) 2024 funding six months into the current fiscal year, Congress is jump starting the FY 2025 cycle to get bills written before the fall election season.
The first step in the House was to appoint Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) as the new chairman of the Committee on Appropriations after Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) stepped down following the completion of the FY 2024 bills. Cole has experience chairing the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, which funds student aid, and has supported the Pell Grant and TRIO programs in past budgets. He set the tone for his leadership position by communicating that FY 2025 funding levels will stick to the Fiscal Responsibility Act caps and encouraging the subcommittees to work swiftly to write bills and avoid the delays experienced in FY 2024.
Cole also announced a quick turn around on the earmark process with a May 1 deadline for House members to submit funding requests. The updated guidance for what the House calls “community project funding” continues to ban projects in the Labor-HHS-Education bill and now prohibits nonprofit organizations from receiving funds in the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development bill. Both prohibitions are in place to avoid political drama over funding of social programs that do not have bipartisan support. Cole has been quoted saying, referring to other House members, “I shouldn’t have to have a political problem in my district because I voted for a bill that had your earmark in it.”
In the Senate, the deadline for submitting requests for its version of earmarks, called congressionally directed spending, is May 14. Earmarks are allowed in the Senate version of the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee bill, as they were in FY 2024.
Subcommittees in both chambers are currently holding hearings with agency heads regarding the administration’s FY 2025 budget request as they prepare to write their FY 2025 bills. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified in support of the administration’s FY 2025 budget request before the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. While senators highlighted their funding priorities for programs in their opening statements, their questions focused on the botched rollout of the new FAFSA and current campus antisemitic protests.
Members on both sides of the aisle expressed disappointment with the FAFSA delays, noting that colleges barely had received correct information from the Department by the traditional May 1 decision day for college students. They demanded answers to why the rollout failed and asked if the next version would be error-free. Cardona cited the technical difficulties of replacing a 40-year-old system for the delays and other issues but stopped short of committing to having the FAFSA for 2025-26 up and running for October 1.
The next step for the House and Senate committees is to provide funding allocations to their subcommittees. The chairs of the Defense subcommittees in both chambers have indicated they plan to write bills at the statutory cap levels rather than look for additional increases, which could alleviate pressure on the non-defense bills. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is the largest non-defense bill, which usually is written in June.
The first step in the House was to appoint Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) as the new chairman of the Committee on Appropriations after Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX) stepped down following the completion of the FY 2024 bills. Cole has experience chairing the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, which funds student aid, and has supported the Pell Grant and TRIO programs in past budgets. He set the tone for his leadership position by communicating that FY 2025 funding levels will stick to the Fiscal Responsibility Act caps and encouraging the subcommittees to work swiftly to write bills and avoid the delays experienced in FY 2024.
Cole also announced a quick turn around on the earmark process with a May 1 deadline for House members to submit funding requests. The updated guidance for what the House calls “community project funding” continues to ban projects in the Labor-HHS-Education bill and now prohibits nonprofit organizations from receiving funds in the Transportation-Housing and Urban Development bill. Both prohibitions are in place to avoid political drama over funding of social programs that do not have bipartisan support. Cole has been quoted saying, referring to other House members, “I shouldn’t have to have a political problem in my district because I voted for a bill that had your earmark in it.”
In the Senate, the deadline for submitting requests for its version of earmarks, called congressionally directed spending, is May 14. Earmarks are allowed in the Senate version of the Labor-HHS-Education subcommittee bill, as they were in FY 2024.
Subcommittees in both chambers are currently holding hearings with agency heads regarding the administration’s FY 2025 budget request as they prepare to write their FY 2025 bills. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona testified in support of the administration’s FY 2025 budget request before the Senate Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee. While senators highlighted their funding priorities for programs in their opening statements, their questions focused on the botched rollout of the new FAFSA and current campus antisemitic protests.
Members on both sides of the aisle expressed disappointment with the FAFSA delays, noting that colleges barely had received correct information from the Department by the traditional May 1 decision day for college students. They demanded answers to why the rollout failed and asked if the next version would be error-free. Cardona cited the technical difficulties of replacing a 40-year-old system for the delays and other issues but stopped short of committing to having the FAFSA for 2025-26 up and running for October 1.
The next step for the House and Senate committees is to provide funding allocations to their subcommittees. The chairs of the Defense subcommittees in both chambers have indicated they plan to write bills at the statutory cap levels rather than look for additional increases, which could alleviate pressure on the non-defense bills. The Labor-HHS-Education bill is the largest non-defense bill, which usually is written in June.