Leadership Announces Topline Spending Agreement for FY 2024

Congress will gavel back in this week as lawmakers race to fund the government ahead of the upcoming deadlines. Over the weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced a deal on topline spending numbers for fiscal year (FY) 2024, setting the overall spending number for non-defense funding at $773 billion, with defense funding pegged at $886 billion — figures that are in line with those agreed to under the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA). Lawmakers have until January 19 to negotiate, finalize, and pass the spending bills for Agriculture-FDA, Energy-Water Development, Military Construction-VA, and Transportation-HUD. The remaining bills must be passed by February 2.

• Context & Next Steps. If leadership can make meaningful progress on a bipartisan “omnibus” spending package for FY 2024, it could be leveraged as a vehicle to carry bipartisan agreements on health care, tax, border security, foreign aid, and more. However, lawmakers must navigate a host of “poison pill” issues such as abortion, immigration, and spending cuts before this can become a reality. In addition to keeping the government funded and clearing the decks on a slate of 2024 priorities, leadership also appears motivated to avert a one percent across the board spending cut that would otherwise be triggered under the terms of last year’s debt ceiling agreement. This cut would take effect at the beginning of May through a sequestration order to be issued by April 30, 2024, thus providing Congress with less than three months to nix the FRA sequestration penalty.