Congressional Deadlines to Watch in Early 2024

At a Glance

• January 19: Without additional funding, there will be a partial government shutdown, including in the following departments/agencies: the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing & Urban Development, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs; and the Food & Drug Administration.
• February 2: Without additional funding, there will be a full government shutdown, including the U.S. Congress’ operations; the Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, Health & Human Services, Homeland Security, Interior, Justice, Labor, State, and Treasury; and the Environmental Protection Agency.
• April 30: If Congress cannot agree to a full year of FY2024 funding and instead elects to pass a third short-term extension past this date, there will be 1% across-the-board cuts for defense and nondefense discretionary spending below non-inflation-adjusted FY2023 levels.

As Congress returns to session this week following a multiweek holiday break, lawmakers face multiple and complicated challenges in this new year. In large part, these challenges are rooted in unresolved issues from 2023, a year marked by increasing levels of dysfunction, gridlock and political instability. Escalating international (Ukraine, Israel/Hamas) and domestic (immigration/southern border) crises have complicated legislative solutions and opened up new fronts of conflict in the acrimonious 118th Congress and have continued to raise the specter of a potential government shutdown. Over the weekend, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson announced a long-awaited deal on the overall budget levels for FY2024 funding. If this deal is enacted into law, Congress will stave off a government shutdown and further spending cuts, for now. However, with funding deadlines fast approaching and details including policy riders unresolved — not to mention opposition from House Republicans — the threat of a government shutdown amid continued partisan conflict remains. 

How We Got Here

One of the central challenges of 2023 — now extending into the new year — is Congress’ ongoing difficulty in agreeing to and enacting annual federal spending levels for Fiscal Year 2024. In May 2023, then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy made a deal with President Biden and Senate Democrats to raise the debt ceiling through the Fiscal Responsibility Act. As part of that deal, Congress agreed to top-level spending numbers designed to help guide the appropriations process and avoid the threat of a shutdown. However, facing pressure from members in his conference, then-Speaker McCarthy walked back on that agreement just weeks after its enactment, by allowing House Appropriators to markup legislation well below the agreed-upon levels. In late September, facing the deadline of an imminent government shutdown, Congress passed a bipartisan short-term continuing resolution (CR) to provide funding through November 17, 2023. However, not long after, McCarthy was the first House Speaker to be ousted from his role following a rebellion of eight House Republicans with the support of all House Democrats. McCarthy’s ouster set up a tumultuous month of October, where after three failed nominations, House Republicans elected Congressman Mike Johnson as Speaker, who immediately faced the challenge of keeping the federal government funded.

Importance of Deadlines

As the November 17 deadline approached, Speaker Johnson introduced a plan to provide short-term funding into the new year but to divide that funding’s end point into two different dates. Without additional funding, the key federal agencies tied to individual appropriations bills expiring at each given date will shut down.

• January 19: Without additional funding, the following federal appropriations bills will no longer have money to fund their respective federal agencies, resulting in a partial government shutdown:
  • Agriculture, Rural Development, and Food and Drug Safety — U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Food and Drug Administration
  • Energy and Water Development — U.S. Department of Energy
  • Military Construction and Veterans Affairs — U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
  • Transportation, Housing and Urban Development — U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
• February 2: If the above appropriations bills and this second group do not receive additional funding, there will be a full government shutdown:
  • Defense — U.S. Department of Defense
  • Commerce, Justice and Science — U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Justice
  • Financial Services and General Government — U.S. Department of the Treasury
  • Homeland Security — U.S. Department of Homeland Security
  • Interior, Environment and Related Agencies — U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
  • Labor, Health, Human Services and Education — U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Department of Labor, U.S. Department of Education
  • Legislative Operations — U.S. Congress
  • State and Foreign Operations — U.S. Department of State
• April 30: As part of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, Congress agreed to caps in defense and nondefense discretionary spending and a mechanism to cut spending further if a full-year funding measure is not approved.
  • If Congress cannot agree to and enact a full year of FY2024 funding and instead elects to pass a third short-term extension past this date, then the Fiscal Responsibility Act will exact a 1% across-the-board cut for both defense and nondefense discretionary spending below FY2023 levels.
  • This 1% cut — on top of the relative cut (adjusted for inflation) of extending FY23 levels into 2024 — will potentially have a major impact on the operations of defense and nondefense federal agencies that rely on annual appropriations.

Impact of FY2025 Funding

The holdover of 2023’s unresolved spending obstacles could also present major challenges and disruptions to the regular annual appropriations process for FY2025. These continuing problems could significantly impact both programmatic and Congressionally-Directed Spending (CDS) / Community Project Funding (CPF) requests (more commonly referred to as earmarks). Last year, deadlines for both types of requests were scheduled from the middle of March through April (a common schedule for deadlines).

• However, as the timeline above details, a continuation of unresolved FY2024 funding issues could directly impact (or delay) both the timing of those deadlines and limit the amount of time between notice of appropriations deadlines and the deadlines themselves.
• This could result in a scenario where stakeholders have little insight into the parameters of FY2025 programmatic and earmark requests until late into the spring and then subsequently could have very little time to modify those requests before the deadlines themselves. This opaque and shortened timeline could make it difficult to adequately marshal individual Member/Senator support for priorities and conduct the required due diligence for earmark requests.

Concluding Thoughts

Congress’ ongoing and unresolved funding challenges continue to result in unpredictability and uncertainty for stakeholders and advocates. If these deadlines are not met, a partial or full government shutdown could result in further policy and programmatic disruption. Moreover, continued lack of full-year funding could result in across-the-board funding cuts that further impact the operations of federal agencies. The annual appropriations process for FY2025 could as well be significantly impacted by the unresolved funding issues. As a result, stakeholders and advocates will need to be prepared and nimble in the development and advocacy of their requests in the FY2025 process and in navigating the remainder of FY2024’s dynamic challenges.