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U.S. Appropriations FY2025: The Power of the Purse Unhinged - Early Days
- By Diabolical
- The Soap Box
- 170 Replies
First, I am so very sorry I forgot to post all the links for Agriculture. 
I'm certain if ya'll have been following along, you'll be able to find the data yourself pretty easily.
And now, the last House bill. Thank freaking goodness. Remember this is snorkeling, not a deep dive.
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.
Colloquially known as THUD.
Commentary:
This from glancing over the summaries before I started, This is a heavily mixed bag. From some eyeroll worthy sniping and distractedly painful racism all the way to some honest-to-goodness bipartisan efforts to actually do some freaking good. It's VERY weird.
I will say this right up front: if at any time you assume there is an energy efficiency or climate related thing the Republicans can either remove from the bill entirely or 'none of these funds' into irrelevance, you will have them dead to the rights. Efficiency in fuel standards, better, more efficient, and climate change fighting energy rules and requirements for vehicles and housing projects, clean energy standards for urban development? All of it, either excised or prohibited from taking effect. I'm not going to cover them all, but you can safely assume that it's ALL there like that.
Appropriations Committee Press Releases:
Bill Report (initial): https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP00/20240710/117503/HMKP-118-AP00-20240710-SD003.pdf
Department of Transportation - A mixed bag. Some increases, some decreases. You'll see lots of stealing from future appropriations to pay for stuff through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
Discretionary funding: $25 billion. Less than FY24 ($1.86 billion) and the AdminFY25 ($336 million).
Highway Trust Fund.. funds: $81.5 billion
Added together, DoT sees a "marginal" increase of $306 million from FY24 levels, and is just shy of the AdminFY25 request.
Federal Aviation Administration: See's an increase of $1.6 billion over FY24, and falls just $15 million short of the Administration request. running through the Budget Line Items in the bill report? It is EXTREMELY close to what the Administration (and the FAA itself) requested. And it includes $667 million for expanding the air traffice controller workforce dramatically. Think 2000 people.
Commentary: Confession time! I've been running under the misconception that parts of the FAA were funded via mandatory means - THEY ARE NOT! They are AUTHORIZED in five year increments instead of annually, but they are still funded annually. Poo. Part of that confusion on my part is down to most Air Traffic Controllers being hired on as excepted personnel instead of competitive, but that's some real inside .gov employee baseball. They are also 'excepted' which means they have to work during a shutdown (with eventual back pay). I know how that feels.... ANYWAY!
This is one of those ultra rare bipartisan "wins" in all of the negotiations. Don't worry, normal service will resume in 3...2....1...
They also cut out any DEI offices, climate change offices/initiatives, and electrification of vehicles. Saves them $7 million.
Commentary: Knew it was too good to last. And it continues...
Amtrak: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25). Pretty dramatically, with some extraordinary shortfalls for grants meant to flesh out/maintain the Amtrak network. Which is crap now. That's not a piece of commentary. 'Tis fact. We suck at passenger rail.
Federal Railroad Administration: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25).
They increase Safety and Operations budget by $20 million over FY24, but also cut $8 million from safety research. They also eliminate the "Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger rail". Which seems pretty important, from the DoT website of the program! We suck at passenger rail.
Federal Transit Administration: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25). For Capital Invesetment Grants, the bill does use previously unallocated funds from FY24 and advance appropriations (stealing from FY26) to continue currently ongoing or 'ready for construction' during FY25. However, it cuts the amount of new funding fairly dramatically, which Democrats point out prevents any NEW projects from being started.
Federal Highway Administration: $61.3 billion from the Highway Trust Fund.
Maritime Administration: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25).
Safety Agencies:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: Down/Down
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Up (FY24) / Down (AdminFY25)
Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration: Up (FY24) / Down (AdminFY25)
Commentary: I honestly didn't know that last one fell under DoT! Today I learned.
Department of Housing and Urban Development - This is an even harsher mixed bag. To the point where the summaries disagree with the top line numbers. I'll use the Republican provided values - they're worse.
Discretionary funding: $64.8 billion, less than FY24 by $5.2 billion. It's also UP on the AdminFY25 request by $568 million.\
Commentary: I had to dig into the bill report to find that data too - neither the Republicans nor the Democrats apparently wanted to comment on that. But there you go. How is that for freaking weird? The Democrats focus on the details on a wide variety of HUD issues, but not the overall numbers. Republicans present the details in a very straight fashion - no real comparisons for any component of the department with the AdminFY25 request, and very few mentions of comparisons to FY24 levels.
So, what is good in here?
Section 8 - from the Democrat Summary (the GOP summary is less informative in these areas):
Housing For The Elderly and Housing For Persons With Disabilities - from the Democrat Summary:
Homeless Assistance Grants and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS both receive funding up to the AdminFY25 request level.
Native American Programs: Up on FY24 by $112 million (8%!).
Commentary: Everything else is either a heavily weighted mixed bag or is a straight up cut.
From the Democrat summary:
Public Housing: Down and Down
Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant: Eliminated
Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity: Equal to FY24, Down to AdminFY25.
Democrats state the following:
Yep! Found it, and can confirm that this is NOT in this years' bill:"
From H.R. 4366, the first Mini-bus to pass in the spring.
Riders:
I'm certain if ya'll have been following along, you'll be able to find the data yourself pretty easily.
And now, the last House bill. Thank freaking goodness. Remember this is snorkeling, not a deep dive.
Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies.
Colloquially known as THUD.
Commentary:
This from glancing over the summaries before I started, This is a heavily mixed bag. From some eyeroll worthy sniping and distractedly painful racism all the way to some honest-to-goodness bipartisan efforts to actually do some freaking good. It's VERY weird.
I will say this right up front: if at any time you assume there is an energy efficiency or climate related thing the Republicans can either remove from the bill entirely or 'none of these funds' into irrelevance, you will have them dead to the rights. Efficiency in fuel standards, better, more efficient, and climate change fighting energy rules and requirements for vehicles and housing projects, clean energy standards for urban development? All of it, either excised or prohibited from taking effect. I'm not going to cover them all, but you can safely assume that it's ALL there like that.
Appropriations Committee Press Releases:
- GOP(includes amendments): https://appropriations.house.gov/ne...nsportation-housing-and-urban-development-and
- Democrat: https://democrats-appropriations.ho...s-raise-housing-costs-and-make-commutes-worse
Bill Report (initial): https://docs.house.gov/meetings/AP/AP00/20240710/117503/HMKP-118-AP00-20240710-SD003.pdf
Department of Transportation - A mixed bag. Some increases, some decreases. You'll see lots of stealing from future appropriations to pay for stuff through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
Discretionary funding: $25 billion. Less than FY24 ($1.86 billion) and the AdminFY25 ($336 million).
Highway Trust Fund.. funds: $81.5 billion
Added together, DoT sees a "marginal" increase of $306 million from FY24 levels, and is just shy of the AdminFY25 request.
Federal Aviation Administration: See's an increase of $1.6 billion over FY24, and falls just $15 million short of the Administration request. running through the Budget Line Items in the bill report? It is EXTREMELY close to what the Administration (and the FAA itself) requested. And it includes $667 million for expanding the air traffice controller workforce dramatically. Think 2000 people.
Commentary: Confession time! I've been running under the misconception that parts of the FAA were funded via mandatory means - THEY ARE NOT! They are AUTHORIZED in five year increments instead of annually, but they are still funded annually. Poo. Part of that confusion on my part is down to most Air Traffic Controllers being hired on as excepted personnel instead of competitive, but that's some real inside .gov employee baseball. They are also 'excepted' which means they have to work during a shutdown (with eventual back pay). I know how that feels.... ANYWAY!
This is one of those ultra rare bipartisan "wins" in all of the negotiations. Don't worry, normal service will resume in 3...2....1...
They also cut out any DEI offices, climate change offices/initiatives, and electrification of vehicles. Saves them $7 million.
Commentary: Knew it was too good to last. And it continues...
Amtrak: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25). Pretty dramatically, with some extraordinary shortfalls for grants meant to flesh out/maintain the Amtrak network. Which is crap now. That's not a piece of commentary. 'Tis fact. We suck at passenger rail.
Federal Railroad Administration: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25).
They increase Safety and Operations budget by $20 million over FY24, but also cut $8 million from safety research. They also eliminate the "Federal-State Partnership for Intercity Passenger rail". Which seems pretty important, from the DoT website of the program! We suck at passenger rail.
Federal Transit Administration: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25). For Capital Invesetment Grants, the bill does use previously unallocated funds from FY24 and advance appropriations (stealing from FY26) to continue currently ongoing or 'ready for construction' during FY25. However, it cuts the amount of new funding fairly dramatically, which Democrats point out prevents any NEW projects from being started.
Federal Highway Administration: $61.3 billion from the Highway Trust Fund.
Maritime Administration: Down (FY24) and down (AdminFY25).
Safety Agencies:
Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration: Down/Down
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Up (FY24) / Down (AdminFY25)
Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration: Up (FY24) / Down (AdminFY25)
Commentary: I honestly didn't know that last one fell under DoT! Today I learned.
Department of Housing and Urban Development - This is an even harsher mixed bag. To the point where the summaries disagree with the top line numbers. I'll use the Republican provided values - they're worse.
Discretionary funding: $64.8 billion, less than FY24 by $5.2 billion. It's also UP on the AdminFY25 request by $568 million.\
Commentary: I had to dig into the bill report to find that data too - neither the Republicans nor the Democrats apparently wanted to comment on that. But there you go. How is that for freaking weird? The Democrats focus on the details on a wide variety of HUD issues, but not the overall numbers. Republicans present the details in a very straight fashion - no real comparisons for any component of the department with the AdminFY25 request, and very few mentions of comparisons to FY24 levels.
So, what is good in here?
Section 8 - from the Democrat Summary (the GOP summary is less informative in these areas):
These numbers match AdminFY25
Housing For The Elderly and Housing For Persons With Disabilities - from the Democrat Summary:
Homeless Assistance Grants and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS both receive funding up to the AdminFY25 request level.
Native American Programs: Up on FY24 by $112 million (8%!).
Commentary: Everything else is either a heavily weighted mixed bag or is a straight up cut.
From the Democrat summary:
Public Housing: Down and Down
Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant: Eliminated
Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity: Equal to FY24, Down to AdminFY25.
Democrats state the following:
I can't find that last bit in the bill text or the report. I wonder if it was a bit of language that was in last years' bill that has disappeared....
Yep! Found it, and can confirm that this is NOT in this years' bill:"
From H.R. 4366, the first Mini-bus to pass in the spring.
Riders:
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