President Joe Biden (D) would veto a Republican-authored bill to extend federal agencies’ 2024 budgets into the first six months of fiscal year 2025, according to a Monday statement.
The bill, H.R. 9494 Continuing Appropriations and Other Matters Act for 2025, would make only one exception to 2024 budget for the Department of Energy by allowing the agency “to sustain specialized security activities” for its defense nuclear programs.
“This continuing resolution (CR) would place agencies at insufficiently low levels—both for defense and non-defense—for a full six months, rather than providing a short-term stopgap to provide the Congress more time to work on full-year bills,” the Joe Biden (D) administration’s statement said.
The bill was introduced to the House Rules Committee Monday, the first day Congress returned from its annual August recess. If the bill does not pass, and Congress approve a different spending package by Sept. 30, the government will go into partial shutdown.
Media reported that House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a private GOP conference call last week that he would consider a continuing resolution to freeze federal spending at 2024 levels through March 28.
“This is political theater,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) said Monday during a hearing of the House Rules Committee about Johnson’s bill. Massie told the Monitor last week that he would vote against the House speaker’s six-month continuing resolution plan because “it’s crap.”
Other Republicans on Monday spoke in favor of the bill in the committee.
Meanwhile, in the Senate, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and chair of the Senate appropriations committee Patty Murray (D-Wash.) said in a joint statement that they are against the House GOP’s proposal.
“As we have said repeatedly, avoiding a government shutdown requires bipartisanship, not a bill drawn up by one party,” the statement said, adding that Johnson is “wasting precious time catering to the hard MAGA right.”
A floor vote on the House’s bill had not yet been scheduled as of Monday evening.
