Congress Clears CR, Heads Home with To-Do List Largely Untouched

The House and Senate have passed a Continuing Resolution to keep the government operating for another three months. They quickly headed out of town, earlier than scheduled, both to beat the arrival of Hurricane Helene in the southeastern United States and to continue campaigning for the November elections. When they return in mid-November, their to-do list will look much the same as it did a month ago.

The CR (H.R. 9747) continues funding for departments and agencies in the discretionary portion of the federal budget through December 20.

The House voted on the bill under suspension of the rules last night. That avoids the Rules Committee, but requires a two-thirds vote instead of a simple majority. This “clean” CR that lasts for three months easily met that requirement with a 341-82 vote. House Majority Leader Mike Johnson (R-LA) had tried last week to pass a six-month CR (through March 28, 2025) that included the SAVE Act that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote, but it was defeated with almost all Democrats and 14 Republicans voting no. All no votes on this bill were from Republicans.

Eager to leave town, the Senate moved more quickly than usual to pass the bill 78-18. All no votes in the Senate also were Republican.

A significant portion of federal spending is mandatory, including “entitlement” programs like Social Security and Medicare that can only be changed by modifying the underlying law as to who is eligible for benefits, for example. Another portion is interest on the national debt, which depends on the amount of debt. The third portion is discretionary, meaning Congress chooses how to spend it every year. Most of the departments and agencies the public is familiar with — including DOD, NASA, NOAA — are part of discretionary funding.

The House and Senate Appropriations Committees allocate discretionary funding through 12 annual appropriations bills. Congress is supposed to pass each bill separately, but most years agreement can’t be reached on individual bills and they are grouped together into one big package, an “omnibus,” or several smaller packages called minibuses.

So far, none of the FY2025 bills has cleared Congress. The Senate Appropriations Committee approved 11 of the 12 (all but Homeland Security) on bipartisan votes, but none have gone to the floor for consideration.

The House Appropriations Committee approved all 12 and five passed the House, but on highly partisan votes (Defense, Homeland Security, Interior-Environment, MilCon-VA, and State-Foreign Ops). The Legislative Branch bill, which funds Congress itself, was defeated, and the Energy-Water bill was pulled from consideration when it was clear it wouldn’t pass. The Commerce-Justice-Science bill that funds NASA and NOAA, and the Transportation-HUD bill that funds the FAA and its Office of Commercial Space Transportation, have not made it to the floor yet.

That was the situation when Congress returned three weeks ago and no progress has been made. To some extent that’s not unexpected in an election year when they want to wait to see which party will be in control of the House, Senate, and White House starting in January.

The CR is only through December 20, however, so this Congress still has FY2025 appropriations on its to-do list. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has vowed that there will be no “buses” this year — no omnibus or minibuses — and instead each bill will be considered and passed individually in the five weeks they are scheduled to be in session after the elections. That’s a tall order.  Many members of Congress oppose omnibuses and minibuses, but it often is the only way they can reach agreement.

In the meantime DOD, NASA, NOAA and all the others will be in limbo, funded at their prior year levels not knowing what they’ll have for FY2025 and unable to begin new programs or end old ones.

Another bill on the to-do list that didn’t make much progress in the past three weeks is the FY2025 National Defense Authorization Act. An NDAA has been enacted every year since the first in 1961 and is considered one of the few “must pass” bills.

The House passed its version in June, but on a largely partisan vote. The Senate Armed Services Committee approved the bill in July, but acknowledged last week that it will not be taken up by the full Senate. Instead, last week they filed a “manager’s package” of amendments to the committee’s bill and will use that to negotiate a final version with the House.

Despite intense partisan disagreements in the past, Congress has always found a way to pass an NDAA. Since it may be the only other major piece of legislation that passes this year, other legislation may well get added onto it.  Two space-related provisions that already are in the manager’s package would extend the FAA’s learning period for commercial human spaceflight until January 2028 and indemnification until September 2028.

The leadership of the House Science, Space, and Technology (SS&T) Committee and the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee have been saying since the beginning of this Congress that they want to pass a new NASA authorization bill and commercial space legislation, but progress has been slow. The House just passed a 2024 NASA Authorization Act on Monday, but no bill has been introduced in the Senate yet. House SS&T approved a Commercial Space Act last November on a partisan vote. No further action has occurred and no Senate bill has been introduced.  If the two parties and the two chambers can agree on legislation, they might also get wrapped into the NDAA.

The only space-related bill that has cleared both the House and Senate this year is the Launch Communications Act (S. 1648), which is waiting to be signed by President Biden. It streamlines the process for getting spectrum for launch and reentry of commercial space vehicles.