The Latest on FY 2024 Government Funding

January 29, 2024

House and Senate Appropriations Committee leaders made important progress toward a March 2024 government funding deal late last week, but much work remains ahead. Notably, Chairs Kay Granger (R-TX) and Patty Murray (D-WA) struck an agreement on funding allocations — otherwise known as 302(b)s — for all 12 spending bills in fiscal year (FY) 2024. The allocations, which have yet to be posted publicly as of this writing, will allow appropriators to write, finalize, and pass funding bills during the February work period. Depending on the overall level of bipartisan cooperation during this process, a March 2024 funding deal could be used to carry other pending legislative efforts around health care, tax, and more. The funding deadline for Agriculture-FDA, Military Construction-VA, Energy-Water, and Transportation-HUD will run through March 1, with everything else — including Labor-HHS-Education — funded through March 8.

Both chambers will be in session this week, starting with the House today and the Senate tomorrow. On the House side, lawmakers are waiting to see whether a bipartisan package of business and family tax reforms will be called up by leadership for a vote at some point this week. Text for the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act — which passed the Ways and Means Committee with near-unanimous support at the markup earlier this month — was posted to the schedule under items that “may be under consideration,” suggesting that House GOP leadership has yet to make a decision as to whether the bill will come up.

Meanwhile… A bipartisan group of senators, including Sens. Chris Murphy (D-CT), James Lankford (R-OK), and Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ), are hoping to produce legislative text for a supplemental appropriations package that includes foreign aid and border security, but it remains to be seen whether this forthcoming agreement can earn the 60 votes needed for passage. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has also characterized the contours of the deal as “dead-on-arrival” in the Republican-controlled House.