Government will remain open, with cuts

Mar 15, 2025 · by Amy West

President Trump signed into law the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act on Saturday which funds the government for the remainder of the fiscal year, through September (House vote, Senate vote, text, detailed summary).

How much of the government will still be running by then is anyone's guess.

It wasn't a "clean" continuing resolution

As congressional reporter Steven Dennis noted on Bluesky, a “clean” continuing resolution (CR) "is one line changing a date" to delay the expiration of existing government funding.

This was not a clean CR. Most aren't. For example, December's CR added emergency funding for natural disasters. Sometimes congressional leaders count on enough legislators and the President wanting to avoid a shutdown to push through other controversial provisions.

This CR does not keep funding levels the same as they have been. Non-defense spending was decreased by $13 billion and defense spending increased by $6 billion across hundreds of hard-to-decipher line items. That's an overall cut of $7 billion, which is 0.1% of total federal spending.

The bill also rolls back Washington, DC's authority to spend its own local taxes by $1.1 billion, forcing across-the-board cuts in the city (although the Senate has already voted to undo that mere hours after voting for it, the House has not indicated if it will also).

Although President Trump signed the bill, he doesn't intend to follow it. Right after signing it, he began cuts at the parent agency of Voice of America --- those cuts don't appear to be in the CR, although it's hard to know.

Confirmations

• Chavez-DeRemer for Secretary of Labor passed 67-32
• The Senate is now beginning to focus on confirmations of lower-level officials since all but one of Trump's cabinet-level nominations have been confirmed. We won't track individually from here as a matter of course because there are over 1,000 potentially Senate-confirmable positions. Why isn't there a firm number? The Center for Presidential Transition explains.

Legislation Passed Last Week

• H.J.Res. 25: Rolling back the IRS rule relating to “Gross Proceeds Reporting by Brokers That Regularly Provide Services Effectuating Digital Asset Sales” passed 292-132
• S. 331: HALT Fentanyl Act, which would put fentanyl at the highest level in the controlled substances list, passsed the Senate 84-16
• H.R. 1156: Pandemic Unemployment Fraud Enforcement Act, which would extend the statute of limitations for prosecuting fraud related to pandemic era funding, passed the House 295-127
• H.R. 901: Research Security and Accountability in DHS Act, which would require the Department of Homeland Security to develop a Department-wide policy and process to safeguard research and development from unauthorized access to or disclosure of sensitive information in research and development acquisitions, passed the House 410-1
• H.R. 495: Subterranean Border Defense Act, which would require annual reports on counter illicit cross-border tunnel operations, passed the House 402-1
• H.R. 993: Emerging Innovative Border Technologies Act, which would require the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop a plan to identify, integrate, and deploy new, innovative, disruptive, or other emerging or advanced technologies to enhance, or address capability gaps in, border security operations, passed the House 406-9