House Republicans on Tuesday released a proposed spending package for fiscal year 2025 that would cut funding for the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Commerce Department. The bill is likely to be the subject of heated battles.
The annual spending bill, released by the House Appropriations Committee, lays out House GOP spending goals for the Justice and Commerce Departments as well as federal science funding. It would provide just over $78 billion across the federal departments and agencies it covers, a cut of roughly $1.3 billion, or 2%, according to Republicans on the Appropriations Committee.
That includes about $36.5 billion for the Justice Department — a cut of nearly $1 billion, or 3%, compared with 2024. President Joe Biden had requested some $3 billion more.
The House plan would also reduce the FBI’s funding by $367.7 million (3.5%) compared with 2024. The $10.3 billion it would provide for the FBI is more than $1 billion shy of President Joe Biden’s request. The House Republican bill also would prevent the bureau from moving ahead with its plan to build a new headquarters after the Biden administration in November announced plans for new construction in Maryland. That decision followed years of arguments and jockeying between Maryland and Virginia over the headquarters plans. A government funding deal passed earlier this year included $200 million for construction of the new FBI site.
Conservatives have taken aim at the Justice Department and the FBI as Republicans seek to push back against the criminal prosecutions of former President Donald Trump, which they claim are politically motivated abuses of power.
“This bill prioritizes fiscal sanity and the liberties of the American people,” said Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican. “It halts the weaponization of the federal government against its citizens and enhances congressional oversight to ensure taxpayer dollars are used responsibly.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland called the proposed cuts drastic and unacceptable. “This effort to defund the Justice Department and its essential law enforcement functions will make our fight against violent crime all the more difficult. It is unacceptable,” he said in a speech in Cleveland.
The spending bill does not look to specifically target the Justice Department’s prosecutions of Trump by a special counsel — at least not yet.
“In addition to not explicitly targeting special counsel Jack Smith, the bill also doesn’t delve into the state-level cases against Trump or go after grant funding to those offices, such as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis,” Politico’s Jordain Carney and Jennifer Scholtes write. “That doesn’t mean the GOP’s push to punish Trump’s prosecutors is over. The bill is all but guaranteed to attract a litany of hot-button amendments, including a revived fight over Trump’s legal battles, once it gets to the House floor.”
The bill also would provide $9.8 billion for the Commerce Department, a cut of about $980 million. Science funding, on the other hand, would see a roughly $500 million increase (or about 1%) to nearly $34.5 billion. NASA would get a $300 million increase to $25.2 billion, while the National Science Foundation would get a boost of about $200 million, lifting its funding to $9.26 billion.
The bottom line: This bill is expected to get a vote on the House floor late next month, but it has no real chance of becoming law given the expected opposition of Senate Democrats and the White House.
