The 2024 US federal budget is now in its fifth month.
As we previously published in the Index, although former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, reached a broad agreement on the budget with Democratic President Joe Biden and the leader of the Democratic majority Senate, Chuck Schumer, during the term of Democratic President Joe Biden. However, ultimately, the far-right wing of Republican lawmakers, the Freedom Caucus, opposed the deal on the debt ceiling, so at the end of fiscal year 2023, at the end of September, they did not embrace the deal. 2024 budget, but only temporarily extended the 2023 budget.
Budget negotiations have progressed slowly since then. Kevin McCarthy's party colleague, Mike Johnson, who was meanwhile defeated, won the Speaker of the House position. I accepted.
It was the fourth time in the current fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2023, that a temporary short-term budget was used to avoid a government shutdown.
According to the just-passed interim budget, most federal agencies will be able to operate until March 8, and the rest until March 22. Under the agreement, six of the 12 bills containing the budget should be adopted by both chambers of Congress next week, and the other half within three weeks, but it is questionable whether this will work.
Republicans only have a razor-thin majority in the House, so Mike Johnson has to balance on very thin ice.
To make a deal with the White House and Senate that is acceptable to Republicans as well as Democrats' demands — at least to the extent that his factional colleagues don't want to oust him.
In addition, there is the added difficulty that the Freedom Caucus, among Republicans, rejects bipartisan cooperation, and one of its members, Matt Gaetz, once ousted a speaker because he believed McCarthy gave too much to Democrats. For this reason, Johnson needs the votes of Democratic representatives, and in a vote Thursday evening, only Democratic votes passed the temporary budget.
The 2025 budget should be discussed soon
The three negotiators, Democratic President Joe Biden, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, and Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, described the vote as a success. Meanwhile, Biden said in a statement,
It's good news for Americans, but I want to be clear: This is a short-term solution, not a long-term solution
– He stressed Biden, who called on the Republican majority in the House of Representatives to work with Democrats and find a solution together.
Meanwhile, there are many Republicans who are critical of the deal. the CBS NewsAccording to Bob Good, president of the Freedom Caucus, he would not have made such a deal with Democrats, calling the current one- or two-week interim budget a mistake and a bad decision.
The FY2024 budget has essentially been under discussion since last July, with Republican Thomas Massie noting that:
Within seven months, the 2025 fiscal budget must be agreed upon and even voted on by September 30.
That's why Massey is recommending that Congress extend the previous fiscal year 2023 budget by one year, which would ensure that the federal state continues to function until September 30. In this case, lawmakers can address the 2025 budget, to which they can devote more time and energy.
In addition, this year is an election year, so the campaign period will again take up a lot of negotiation time, also making it difficult to actually agree on the budget for fiscal year 2025, which begins on October 1, 2024, by the deadline.
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