House Narrowly Passes Full-Year CR to Keep Government Open

The House passed legislation this evening to keep the government funded through September 30, 2025 when FY2025 ends. The almost party-line vote, 217-213, underscored the differences between Republicans who insist it is a “clean” bill that simply extends current funding and Democrats who claim it will hurt hard-working Americans and empower the DOGE cuts underway in the Administration.

The bill, H.R. 1968, funds departments and agencies in the discretionary part of the federal budget for the rest of FY2025, which began on October 1, 2024. That includes DOD, NASA, NOAA and most of the other government agencies the public is familiar with.

This is the third Continuing Resolution (CR) for FY2025. House Republican leaders vowed last year to pass each of the 12 regular appropriations bills, not another CR or an omnibus bill that collects all 12 into a single piece of legislation. Some Republicans and Democrats want to continue working on the 12 bills, including the top Democrats on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees who introduced a short-term CR through April 11 yesterday.

But House Republican leadership decided to press on with their full-year CR.  For the first two FY2025 CRs, Democrats provided the needed votes because of opposition from the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican party. That wasn’t the case today, however. All but two Republicans voted in favor. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only no. He and other ultra-conservative Republicans have opposed CRs in the past because they don’t cut funding sufficiently, but today the others voted in line with President Trump who strongly supports the bill.  Republican Tim Moore (North Carolina) didn’t vote

The Democrats were unified in voting no, with the single exception of Rep. Jared Golden of Maine.  Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) didn’t vote. He is seriously ill with cancer and has been absent most of the year.

 

House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) asserts the bill is “a straightforward extension of funding and certainty for the nation” and includes “no poison pills or unrelated riders.”

The committee’s Ranking Member, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) views it entirely differently, insisting it “hurts hard working Americans” especially by raising housing costs and is a “blank check for Elon Musk” and his “continued dismantling of programs and services our constituents rely on.”

Generally speaking, the CR keeps agencies funded at their FY2024 levels for all of FY2025, with some exceptions (“anomalies”) especially for defense. Democrats say it cuts $13 billion from non-defense and adds $6 billion for defense compared to FY2024.

The only mention of NASA funding in the bill is that it provides $3.092 billion for Safety, Security, and Mission Services, slightly less than the $3.130 billion in FY2024. The FY2025 request for SSMS was $3.044 billion.

NASA received a total of $24.875 billion in FY2024, a two percent cut from the $25.384 billion it had in FY2023 and more than $2 billion less than President Biden’s request. Biden’s FY2025 request was to restore the agency to its FY2023 level, a two percent increase over FY2024. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees approved about the same as the request, but this CR would keep it at $24.875 billion.

The bill’s future in the Senate is unclear.  As in the House, many of the 47 Democrats (including two Independents) are opposed to it, but they also don’t want a government shutdown.

One Republican, Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky), already has said he’s a “no” because it doesn’t cut spending enough.  If the other 52 Republicans vote yes, at least eight Democrats would have to join with them for it to pass.

The current CR expires at midnight Friday, March 14.