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The On the Hill: Breaking Down DC podcast is a collection of sharing more about what’s happening in DC without the bias, ways for you to get involved with the US government, and interviews with friends, colleagues who can help pull back the proverbial curtain of Washington, DC. Katherine Getty, host of the OTH podcast, is a 10-year Washingtonian who lives and breathes politics.
Katherine Getty 0:01
Hi, and welcome to the on the Hill podcast with me your host, Katherine Getty. Each Thursday, I'll peel back the curtain of what happens in Washington, from breaking down current events without bias, to interviews with fellow political nerds, and even and maybe most importantly, ways for you to get involved with our US government. Welcome back to another episode of The on the Hill podcast with me, your host, Katherine Getty. Over the last few weeks, the appropriations process has continued for fiscal year 2025, which starts in October of this year, with a lot of secretaries and agency leadership testify in front of a number of committees on Capitol Hill. But where are we in the appropriations process? What's happening with government funding? Are we going to be on a time crunch again? Well, that's that's what I can answer, you're in the right place. And let's start with a quote. Don't tell me your value. Show me your budget. Now. That's a quote from President Biden in 2020. And today's episode is all about pulling back the curtain of where we are in the appropriations process. I'm going to start by level setting, where kind of the President's budget request is where it started, how the committee's are hearing from agency leadership, namely the secretaries and where are we can go from here, so three things. All right. So let's start with the President's budget in mid March, President Biden released his fiscal year 2025 budget. In years past, this had widely been viewed as the unofficial start to the appropriations process. But given the Congress had yet to finish fiscal year 2024 At that mid March point, and that this is fiscal year 2025, being released released much later than normal. It's being released in March versus February, which probably doesn't sound like a lot, but in legislative days, is an eternity. And given that the fiscal year 2025 budget request from the president is being released much later than it had been in years past. MIDI and Congress, many House and Senate appropriators and members across the aisle had really been working in earnest to get things done. Now. Obviously, members of committee so appropriators are people on the Appropriations Committee have a lot of role in this process. But every member of Congress has some sort of understanding of the process has an ability to input in that process. And that is key. Additionally, the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which was the 2023 debt limit deal, establish statutory spending caps on discretionary spending. So remember, and US government funding, there is discretionary spending and mandatory spending. So think Medicare, some of those entitled Social Security entitlement programs are mandatory spending. Those outlays are pretty set. Now with discretionary spending, you have a way and members of Congress have a way of tweaking where they're giving money to more so. But that Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 really set those limits of where discretionary spending can be at where that kind of influences where members of Congress have influence over discretionary spending. So it all kind of rolls downhill if you catch my drift. The President's budget, though, should always be considered through the lens of a wish list. It's an expression of political values that quote said at best, don't tell me your what you value. Show me your budget. That is exactly what Washington is all about. We care about something more because we're spending more money on it. Doesn't I'm not saying that's right. I'm just saying that's kind of how it works. And the President's budget budget is not a firm policy. I wouldn't consider it a firm policy blueprint. But it should be. It's kind of a consideration from what the administration wants to Congress. It's like a little bit of advising Gunson in a way. It's where the President believes tax dollars should be spent. But ultimately, the decision, as we all know, relies on Congress, they have that power of the purse as outlined in the constitution. So what we know right now in the appropriations process is the President's budget has come out in mid March. We are now if you're listening in real time, early May. And following that what happens is really what I've been seeing over the last couple weeks is secretaries and agency leaders going up to the Hill to basically speak towards their agency or the whatever their, you know, department or sub agency or whatever they they work towards. If they have to testify before Congress, they're basically defending the President's budget and that think of it in a couple of ways. One, it's a congressional oversight piece. It provides Congress the opportunity to question where they're spending their money. It provides some of that justification opportunity. secretary's leaders can speak to why they think money should be spent in maybe a different way than it had in the past or maybe doubling, you know, doubling down on something that they think in the future. It's also kind of falls in that accountability and transparency. All the things are important oversight, justifying transparency, accountability, all kind of works in the same way. But they're all different roles of a secretary. And I think this is, it's really interesting. It's kind of, I think, very nerd moment where you get to see those secretaries speak to okay, I'm more I'm focusing on this. And that's why the money there's money spent towards this, or the President has really focused on why and we're going to support it with funding this year to get it off the ground. It's interesting, it's a part of the process. But that is kind of that's one part of the process. But what will we see in the future? I think over the next few months, so May, June, July, you'll see the committees and those subcommittees start to develop their own bills. And remember, there's 12 appropriations bills. So each subcommittee will be working on their bills, and then having subcommittee or full committee hearings, and it working its way through the process, both on the house in the Senate side. I will say a little shout out to the Senate, the Senate got through all 12 bills last year, even though we went to ended up going to some sort of mini bus scenario, which is packages of the bills. So six and six, I think is how it ended up six bills wrapped into one six wheels wrapped into one. Theoretically, they'll all go separately, that it's only happened four times, if you remember me, sharing with you. It's only happened four times since 1974, when the Congressional Budget and impoundment Control Act of 1974, which enacted establish the Congressional Budget process for determinations of the budget priorities, and the appropriate level of total revenues expenditures debt for each year, and the legislation review of impoundments proposed by the President. So it's only worked four times since 1974. Just laying the grounds for you know, let's think this through, we've talked often about how we're in an election year, there are not many legislative days, the committees are going to be working in earnest through their appropriations process. And we'll see kind of how the House and Senate address them. They have, you know, caps theoretically, for discretionary spending, how that gets split across the 12 bills, still to be seen. But you'll see kind of those committees working through the bills over the summer, we now know kind of where the secretaries are out there up on the hill sharing their feedback. And we'll continue to do so over the next few months. And we'll see where we're getting to and the fiscal cliff in September because yes, there is a cliff again in September, year over year. So I hope this episode has been helpful to provide you kind of a snapshot of where we're at in the appropriations process give you some insights of what's happening on the hill. We're seeing secretaries on the hill as at a budget request that was released in in March of this year. We'll see Congress continue to work through it and I hope you tune in next week to another episode of The on the Hill podcast. If you want to learn more about me your host Katherine Getty, you can find me on Instagram. My handle is at Katherine Getty. If you want to learn more about the podcast and follow along, it's also on Instagram on the Hill DC podcast. Thank you. Thank you, thank you for listening. Share this with someone you know, post about it. This really helps this little engine that could and I so thank you for joining another week. I'll see you next week on another episode of On the hill.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai