CR Rightly Avoids Shutdown But Reflects Broken Budget Process
The House of Representatives will soon vote on a full-year continuing resolution (CR) for Fiscal Year (FY) 2025. The bill would keep the government funded past its current March 14 funding deadline and extend certain expiring health care policies through the end of the fiscal year. According to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the CR would provide $1.6 trillion of total base discretionary spending, with $893 billion for defense and $708 billion for nondefense programs, which would be below the full-year appropriations cap on discretionary spending but above FY 2024 spending.
The bill also continues $20 billion of IRS cuts from the previous year, which CBO estimates would reduce revenue by $66 billion. Read our analysis of the bill here.
The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:
Preventing a shutdown of the federal government is as essential as it is common sense. The House bill to keep the lights on ahead of the looming deadline avoids this wasteful and inefficient outcome, and we appreciate that the topline funding numbers are a slight fiscal improvement compared to current levels. But doing the bare minimum is hardly cause for celebration.
Here we are, nearly six months into the fiscal year, set to vote on our third CR in order to avoid a shutdown in less than a week so we can limp our way to the September 30 finish line. Even worse, a full-year CR is essentially a declaration that we’ve given up on trying to fund the government with actual appropriations. It’s like turning in your homework six months late and incomplete – completely unacceptable.
While we support policies to reduce spending, funding the IRS is the most straightforward way to reduce the very large “tax gap” between taxes owed and collected, and thus, can actually help reduce borrowing. Reducing the tax gap used to be a bipartisan priority, with every President from Reagan to Biden (and including President Trump) having proposed tax gap funding.
Budgeting is the most basic responsibility and Congress should go back to passing budgets on time, and end the practice of end-running the budget process while making the fiscal situation worse.
###
For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director of Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.
