Stopgap funding bill should be kept short-term: Wittman

WASHINGTON — With government funding set to expire this month, the biggest question isn’t whether Congress will pass a stopgap deal in time to keep money flowing to the Pentagon, but how long it will last, a senior Republican congressman said today.

When the House and Senate return from recess next week, they will deliberate how to best structure a continuing resolution that prevents a government shutdown when fiscal year 2025 starts on Oct. 1.

“We know we’re not going to get seven appropriations bills, the remaining ones, done between now and the end of the fiscal year,” Virginia Rep. Rob Wittman said during the Defense News conference today. “So in light of that, it looks like there’s going to be another continuing resolution that’ll come up next week, probably the middle of next week. The debate has been, how long should that CR go?”

Wittman, the No. 2 Republican of the House Armed Services Committee, added that his preference would be a deal that would expire before the next congressional session starts in early January, in order to avoid a new Congress having to pick up the baton.

“It’s a little bit easier to navigate [passing FY25 appropriations bills this year] than it is waiting until the 119th Congress, and everything has to get spun back up,” he said. “And then the challenge is not only that, but the debt ceiling and the other aspects that will be there — a new administration. You put all those things together, and it’s much more complicated process.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson has floated a proposal that would extend funding until March and keep funding restricted to the levels outlined by the Fiscal Responsibility Act, but it’s likely to be a nonstarter for Democrats because of his plan to attach voter ID legislation that passed through the Republican-controlled House. Meanwhile, Democrats prefer a shorter CR that would extend until mid-November or into December, which would allow lawmakers to pass an additional spending measure if necessary after the election, CQ Roll Call reported earlier today, citing anonymous sources.

During a recent interview with Breaking Defense, Pentagon Comptroller Mike McCord said the department was resigned to a CR — which constrain the launch of new start programs — but wants would like to keep the length as short as possible.

“I have been sort of bludgeoned into being desensitized to [CRs] that go all the way to December in situations like this,” McCord told Breaking Defense.

“I would love to see it only go… ‘til right after the election,” he said. “But I think that would surprise me if it didn’t go straight to December. And I’ve heard that there are people out there who want to have it straight go into a good bit longer than that, which would be very discouraging.”

While passing a CR will be the first item on the docket for lawmakers when they return to Capitol Hill next week, the House and Senate defense committees still have a laundry list of legislation to push through, including the final defense spending bill and defense policy bill for FY25.

While the Senate Armed Services Committee has passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) out of committee, the Senate has yet to take it up on the floor. If that doesn’t happen over the next week or so, the House and Senate will be unable hold a full conference committee to reconcile the bills, instead having to hash out a compromise bill based on the House NDAA, the SASC version of the bill and the amendments currently filed in the Senate, Wittman said.

“It’s a better process if both bodies … have a final bill,” he said. “I don’t like it when we have the ping pong, because it is a more lengthy process… where there are more variables there that you have to deal with.”

Another key question is how the House and Senate resolve different positions on how much money the Defense Department should receive in FY25 — a situation complicated by Fiscal Responsibility Act spending caps that limit total defense spending to $895.21 billion. House lawmakers approved defense bills that stuck to those levels, while Senate appropriators are hoping to get around the caps by adding additional funds as emergency spending.

Wittman said the defense topline imposed by budget caps is “a realistic place for us to be,” but that the Senate’s push for a higher defense budget could build consensus for Congress to approve additional funding for the Defense Department later in FY25.

“It at least introduces the discussion about, is there a need for a supplemental at some time in the future,” he said.