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Congress has approved a stopgap bill to fund the federal government through September 30 and avert a shutdown ahead of a Friday deadline.
Overall, the measure would boost defense spending by $6 billion compared to fiscal year 2024 and decrease nondefense spending by $13 billion.
While Republicans have described the legislation as a so-called “clean” continuing resolution with no partisan measures, some details remain vague.
Meanwhile, Democrats in the House and Senate have slammed the legislation, saying it would give more leeway to President Donald Trump and Elon Musk to redirect funding as they see fit – a charge the GOP denies.
The bill would fully fund core federal services and maintain operations without increasing spending, according to the GOP-led House Appropriations Committee.
“With no poison pills or unrelated riders – the bill is simple: extend funding and certainty for the nation,” Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma said in a statement.
However, the measure contains some Trump administration requests, including an additional $485 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to help boost deportations.
The $13 billion decrease in nondefense spending – which Republicans are touting as $13 billion in savings – would stem from the removal of projects or one-time initiatives funded by lawmakers, known as earmarks, in fiscal year 2024, according to a House Appropriations Committee spokesperson. The measure would not affect the money directed to these projects in the last fiscal year, but it would not repeat the funding for the same projects. No earmarks are included in the continuing resolution, the spokesperson said.
The legislation would also fully fund veterans’ health care services and benefits, while enhancing investments in defense, the committee touted in a press release. It noted that the bill includes the largest pay raise for junior enlisted troops in more than 40 years – the National Defense Authorization Act, which former President Joe Biden signed in December, authorized a 14.5% increase in pay in 2025.
The stopgap measure would also support federal wildland firefighters, including raising their pay and providing premium pay for those responding to fires, according to a GOP summary of the bill. And it would increase funding for air traffic control systems by $753 million above the prior year’s level.
Funding for nutrition assistance to mothers, infants and children in the WIC program would jump by more than $500 million to a total of $7.6 billion, a request made by the Trump administration, the committee highlighted. The bill would also increase funding for the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which supports low-income senior citizens, and for the Food Safety and Inspection Service to review meat and poultry processing plants.
The bill also includes a provision that effectively neuters lawmakers’ powers to force a vote on whether to terminate a president’s ability to impose tariffs. That would help Republican members avoid a politically painful up-or-down vote on ending Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
Democrats are taking issue with the GOP’s move to fund the government through the end of the fiscal year with a continuing resolution, arguing that the package does not provide the specific funding directives for many programs and priorities that would be laid out in a negotiated full-year spending bill.
“This creates slush funds for the Trump administration to reshape spending priorities, eliminate longstanding programs, pick winners and losers, and more,” according to a fact sheet released by Washington Sen. Patty Murray, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The lack of these directives would make it harder to challenge the Trump administration’s actions in court, Murray and Rep. Rosa DeLauro, ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee, said in separate fact sheets.
The lawmakers highlighted a variety of spending cuts contained in the continuing resolution, including slicing $185 million for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation programs and slashing $1.4 billion from the Army Corps of Engineers’ construction funding used for projects to mitigate the impacts of hurricanes and floods.
Plus, the legislation would reduce support for the rural broadband Community Connect program by $30 million, cut nearly $800 million from Veterans Affairs facility construction, eliminate up to $40 million in election security grant funding and trim assistance to farmers to improve their lands and participate in conservation activities by $30 million, according to the Democratic appropriations leaders.
Also, the package would not provide additional funds for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, which will need more money before the end of the fiscal year, Murray and DeLauro said.
The bill would also limit the District of Columbia’s spending to its fiscal year 2024 level for the rest of the year, according to Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton, who represents Washington DC.
Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser and other district officials warned at a press conference on Monday that the district would have to slash $1.1 billion of its approved budget if the bill passes. These cuts would strip funding away from public safety, education and economic growth priorities, Bowser said.
After voting to pass the stopgap bill to avert a shutdown, the Senate voted to pass a separate bill to allow Washington, DC, to maintain control over its funds after Democrats warned the GOP government funding package would cut $1.1 billion of the city’s funding.
It’s not yet clear, however, if that bill will be signed into law. The measure would next need to be passed by the House, where its fate is unclear.
Separately, the government funding package would extend community health centers funding and the pandemic-era authorization expanding the use of telehealth in Medicare through September 30.
The legislation also would reduce some funding for Department of Health and Human Services divisions that run community health centers and other programs and that help people with mental health and substance abuse issues, said Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress. Also, money could be cut for children and family services programs, as well as for aging and disability services programs.
This story has been updated with additional developments.
CNN’s Morgan Rimmer Sarah Davis and Sarah Ferris contributed to this report.
