By: Grace Dille, Weslan Hansen, and Andrew Rice
House Republicans unveiled a spending bill on Saturday that would fund Federal agencies through Sept. 30, setting up a vote on the bill to avoid a government shutdown. The six-month funding bill largely tracks with fiscal year 2024 spending levels, with some notable exceptions that impact technology and cybersecurity.
Both the House and Senate must act by midnight on Friday to avoid a partial government shutdown.
The 99-page continuing resolution (CR) legislation would increase defense spending by about $6 billion above fiscal year (FY) 2024 levels, while cutting non-defense spending cuts by nearly $13 billion. Some of those cuts are related to technology and cybersecurity provisions.
Specifically, the measure would allow for about $892.5 billion in defense spending and about $708 billion in non-defense spending.
Appropriations included in the CR dedicate $56 million to defense acquisition and workforce development and about $134.1 billion in procurements across military branches. Research, development, test, and evaluation (RDTE) funding would receive nearly $349 million in appropriations.
The bill also includes added funding for veterans’ healthcare, along with increased pay for junior enlisted military personnel.
While defense spending is receiving an overall boost, military construction funding would fall below the FY2025 request and the FY2025 authorized level. The CR bill doesn’t include a list of specific project funds that must be spent, leaving what does and doesn’t get funded up to the discretion of the military services.
Recently, House and Senate Republicans have made the push for at least a $100 billion increase in defense spending over the next decade to support President Donald Trump’s agenda. That push has come under fire by Democrats who say the increase would expand the national debt, which will have to be reckoned with by lawmakers this fall when addressing the debt ceiling.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would receive $13.48 billion “of which not less than” $1.8 billion is dedicated to “aviation safety activities” and $10.1 billion is for “air traffic organization activities” according to the CR’s wording.
Following several aviation-related incidents, industry and government alike have been calling for long-term funding support to ensure aviation safety and efficiency. The FAA requested $21.8 billion in funding for the full FY2025.
Tech-Specific Provisions
Notably, the funding bill looks to extend telehealth coverage under Medicare, which is currently set to expire on March 31. The bill would extend telehealth coverage until Sept. 30 – the end of the Federal government’s fiscal year.
The CR would also remove the geographic requirements for telehealth services and delay the in-person requirements for mental health services – meaning seniors would still be able to take appointments from their homes.
The proposed extension comes after Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., recently introduced legislation to make telehealth coverage permanent for senior citizens.
The CR also features a couple of cybersecurity-related provisions. For example, the bill would cut $4.3 million from the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for “operations and support.”
It also looks to extend the authorization of CISA’s National Cybersecurity Protection System (NCPS) from March 14 to Sept. 30. The NCPS is responsible for intrusion detection, analysis, prevention, and information-sharing capabilities that are used to defend the Federal government’s IT infrastructure from cyber threats.
The NCPS is more commonly known for its EINSTEIN suite of intrusion detection and prevention services.
Additionally, the CR appropriates $857 million for scientific and technical research services at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), which appears to be down from the $1.08 billion enacted in FY2024.
The bill also appropriates $87 million for the construction of research facilities at NIST, which is down considerably from the $168 million spent in FY2024. According to NIST’s website, it requested $311 million for construction of research facilities in fiscal year 2025 – leaving a deficit of $224 million between requested and appropriated funding.
A March 8 letter from Democrats in the Senate condemned many aspects of the funding bill, saying it allows the Trump administration to “gut funding for quantum science, artificial intelligence, and climate research” at NIST.
The CR appropriates $3.09 billion to NASA for safety, security, and mission services. Senate Democrats slammed this amount saying it “shortchanges” the organization and that it will cause “premature termination of operating missions and cancelation or delay of missions under development.”
According to the Senate Democrats, the CR also cuts election security grants from $55 million to $15 million – “gutting funding to protect the security and integrity of elections.”