Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), chair of the House Appropriations Committee, said Wednesday that House Republicans will release their proposed top-line number for government funding for most of 2025 later this week.
Cole said Wednesday afternoon that the powerful funding committee is aiming to release the top-line number, as well as the House GOP's proposed allocations for the 12 annual government funding bills, sometime Thursday.
The chairman said the figures will allow the committee to jump-start its government funding work for fiscal 2025 — which runs from October 2024 through September 2025 — as it seeks to follow a tight schedule to pass all 12 bills out of committee during the summer, despite a late start this year.
"It will give us a place to start, and we'll lay out a schedule,” Cole told The Hill, adding the goal “is to try to get all the bills done and out of committee by the August break.”
Cole also said the committee could begin holding markups next week to consider the proposed allocations and other work.
“We're going to get at least one of these things done by the end of May, and then we have a very aggressive schedule coming up before the August break,” Cole said, adding that more information will come out Thursday.
Congress has until late September — when current government funding is set to expire — to pass legislation to keep the lights on or risk a shutdown.
However, Congress is expected to need a funding stopgap in September after finishing its fiscal 2024 funding work months behind schedule.
