As the August recess approaches, congressional appropriators are moving forward on spending bills for fiscal year 2025. As of July 10, the House Appropriations Committee had approved 12 2025 spending bills, each of which funds one or more federal departments or agencies. But as lawmakers debated some of the biggest federal construction bills before passing them, partisan differences were clear. The measures were taken out of committee, but generally along party lines, signaling trouble on the floor.
“a double whammy”
The bill that funds the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Department of the Interior was approved by House appropriators on July 9 on a 29-25 vote in favor of the party. It cut EPA’s state revolving loan programs for water infrastructure and restricts those agencies’ ability to enforce regulations that are not in favor of the Republican Party.
Deirdre Finn, chief executive of the Council of Infrastructure Financing Authorities, says that for water infrastructure the bill is a “double whammy” of a “massive” $678 million cut from the levels of 2021 state revolving loans and “an even larger diversion” of $1 billion from the loan program to 895 congressional earmarks, which come in the form of grants. “Only in DC can you replace a successful state loan program with a new EPA grant program and call it ‘fiscally responsible,'” she. he says
The U.S. Department of Transportation-funded measure, which passed July 10 by a vote of 31-26, “had a lot of positives,” says Michele Stanley, executive vice president and director of advocacy for National Stone, Sand & Gravel . On a positive note, the bill adheres to the levels established in the Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act of 2021, which provides $61.3 billion for the highway bond cap, 2% more than by 2024, Stanley notes. Increases Federal Transit Administration formula funds by 2% to $14.3 billion, which is also in line with the infrastructure act level. Similarly, the House panel bill increases Federal Aviation Administration airport grants by 19 percent, to $4 billion, the amount the authorization bill recently promulgated by the agency.
But the House committee’s top Democrat, Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, criticized Republicans for cutting Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor and national network funds by 12 percent, more than $300 million. Lawmakers also zeroed out DOT’s Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity (RAISE) grants. The program was funded for $345 million by 2024.
“This bill is just the beginning of negotiations, so it could be seen more as an election messaging bill,” says Stanley. Because 2024 is an election year, Congress likely won’t produce a full 2025 spending bill, instead resorting to one or more interim continuing resolutions to keep agencies running, he says. Stanley adds that the outcome of the election will determine whether the expected continuing resolutions last until January or only until November or December.
