Congress Closes the Books on FY 2024 Appropriations

President Joe Biden signed a $1.2 trillion government funding package last weekend as policymakers finally closed the books on fiscal year (FY) 2024 appropriations. The vote on the second “minibus” — which contains the spending bills for Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, Financial Services and General Government (FSGG), Homeland Security, State-Foreign Operations, and Legislative Branch — is the last in either chamber until the week of April 8. When lawmakers return, government funding will continue to eat up bandwidth in the weeks and months ahead, as Congress is well behind on its appropriations work for FY 2025.