The U.S. House and Senate are on recess until September 9. Upon returning, the chambers will need to act to prevent a funding lapse before the new federal fiscal year starts October 1. Lawmakers have only a short window of time to determine funding for FY2025 or to pass another continuing resolution to keep the federal government operating when current spending authority expires September 30th.
There are twelve appropriations bills that make up the federal budget. The Senate Appropriations Committee advanced the Defense, Energy-Water Development, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, and Financial Services bills, all on a bipartisan basis. The Senate Appropriations Committee entered the August recess having passed 11 bills, all of which received substantial bipartisan support. Overall, the bipartisan bills provide increases for select research priorities within the Department of Energy and the National Institutes of Health as well as a slight increase to the Pell Grant annual maximum award; the Senate’s proposed funding levels are also higher in these areas when compared to the House proposals. House leaders were able to pass only five bills from Committee before the August recess.
For the Senate bills, the Department of Energy Office of Science is increased five percent to $8.6 billion while the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) was flat funded. Additionally, the National Institutes of Health receive $50.351 billion in total funding, which includes $1.5 billion for the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Health (ARPA-H). The number includes $127 million in Cures Act authorized funding and this is a $1.77 billion increase (3.8 percent) to NIH’s comparable base budget from FY24.
The FY25 Labor-HHS-Education bill also provides $80 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of Education. It increases the annual maximum Pell Grant award for the 2025-26 award year by $100 to $7,495; contains sustained funding for the Federal Work Study and Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant programs; and increases funding for federal TRIO programs by $20 million. The bill also provides for an additional $100 million for the administration of federal student aid programs, including FAFSA implementation. A summary of the Labor-HHS-Education spending bill is available here.
The FY25 Energy-Water bill (S.4927) provides $61.47 billion in total funding, including $17.74 billion for non-defense programs at the Department of Energy (a $296 million increase over FY24). The bill provides $8.6 billion for the DOE Office of Science, $360 million more than FY24, but $1.5 billion less than what Congress authorized in the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022. The bill also includes $3 million in funding for the Foundation for Energy Security and Innovation and $459.2 million in funding for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (ARPA-E). A summary of the Energy-Water spending bill is available here.
The Senate FY25 Interior-Environment bill (S.4802) provides $209 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), $2 million more than FY24. (The House provided $207 million for the NEH.) These bills, among others, are not expected to come to the Senate floor until this fall.
Finally, the FY25 Defense bill (S.4921) provides $852.2 billion in total funding, a $27.2 billion, or 3.3% increase over FY24. The bill provides $2.5 billion for 6.1 basic research, a 3.9% cut from FY24. A summary of the Defense spending bill is available here.
The differences between the House and the Senate versions of the bills, combined with the spending caps still in place under the Fiscal Responsibility Act, set the stage for tough negotiations down the road. It is unlikely that any differences between the House and the Senate bills will be resolved before the November elections and negotiations could get pushed into the new 118th Congress depending on the election results.