Federal funding for construction and infrastructure programs will remain at current levels through mid-March 2025, under a stopgap spending measure passed by Congress on Dec. 20.
President Joe Biden signed the continuing resolution, or CR, into law on December 21.
The deal, forged by House Republicans and Democrats just six hours before a scheduled federal government shutdown, also provides $110 billion in disaster aid, the first of its kind since Hurricanes Helene and Milton swept through the southeastern United States last fall.
Allocations to disaster relief funding include $29 billion for Federal Emergency Management Agency response, recovery, and mitigation activities; $12 billion for the Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program; and $8 billion in emergency highway funds, part of which will cover the full cost of replacing the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, fulfilling a promise made by President Joe Biden in March. This project is currently estimated at nearly $2 billion.
Other CR disaster relief spending includes: $3.4 billion to repair storm damage to Department of Defense facilities, $3.1 billion for drinking water and water infrastructure improvements residuals; and $1.5 billion to the US Army Corps of Engineers for rehabilitation and repair, studies and projects to reduce the risks of future disasters and to address water infrastructure needs.
Zoe Middleton, associate director for just climate resilience for the Climate and Energy Program of the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted that the disaster recovery aid move, while welcome, unnecessarily delayed multiple efforts of recovery throughout the country.
“The nation has recorded 95 major disaster declarations through November this year, many of which, including floods, wildfires and intensified storms, bear the fingerprints of climate change,” Middleton said in a statement. “Communities need and deserve robust recovery programs funded to recover in the weeks and months following a disaster.”
While last-minute and sometimes hilarious negotiations to keep the government funded have become routine for Congress in recent years, the latest process was upended when President-elect Donald Trump and his adviser next Elon Musk inserted themselves in the process, attacking on social networks. with the size and scope of a previously negotiated bipartisan funding plan appearing headed for easy passage.
However, unwilling to upset the incoming administration, House Republicans rejected the proposal on Dec. 18, returning the next day with a stripped-down version that included a two-year suspension of the debt ceiling sought by Trump. Debt-averse Democrats and Republicans came together to defeat the measure, sending leaders to the negotiating table as federal agencies prepared for a shutdown.
The removal of the debt ceiling provision, with Trump’s approval, according to published reports, was enough to push the bill over the finish line, with the House voting 366-34 for approval. The Senate passed the bill just after the midnight deadline by a vote of 85 to 11. President Biden signed the measure into law the next day.
“While it doesn’t include everything we were looking for,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement, “it does include the disaster relief that the president requested for communities that are recover from the storm, eliminates the fast track to a tax cut for billionaires and would ensure that the government can continue to operate at full capacity.”
Among the casualties of the negotiation process was a provision in the original bill that would have transferred control of federally owned lands containing the partially demolished RFK Stadium to the District of Columbia. That move would have given the District greater flexibility in determining a new use for the site, including a potential new stadium to be built by the owners of the Washington Commanders NFL team.
An erroneous claim on Musk’s social media that the CR contained $3 billion to fund the stadium apparently doomed the transfer, despite specific wording in the legislation that prevents federal funds from being used for that use.
The text of this article was updated on 12/21/24 to reflect new information.
