Senate Spending Plan Proposes $4 Billion More Than House

What happened: The Senate Appropriations Committee July 20 unanimously passed its Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 spending bill. The proposal fully funds highway, public transit, and airport capital programs at their authorized levels and would continue the recent tradition of adding supplemental spending for various capital accounts.

The House Appropriations Committee July 18 passed its bill on a party-line vote after Democrats opposed program cuts included in the legislation.

Why it matters: The Senate-proposed spending levels are nearly $4 billion higher than the plan released last week by the House. Both chambers must come up with an agreement that can be signed into law by President Joe Biden. The unanimous vote in the Senate puts down a marker that lines up with the recent debt ceiling agreement and can presumably attract bipartisan support.

What’s next: With both the House and Senate committees having passed their bills, floor action is the normal next step in each chamber. In recent years, however, negotiations between the two chambers have begun well before the measures faced a floor vote. It is unclear if those discussions will happen prior to the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.