Senate passes FY25 foreign aid funding bill out of committee. So what’s next? 

Last week, the Senate began moving their fiscal year 2025 (FY25) appropriations bills, following the House’s progress in June. Thanks to the incredible advocacy of RESULTS volunteers, the Senate largely maintained our funding priorities, and included important global health language.

While the House cut topline funding for their State and Foreign Operations (SFOPS) bill, the Senate has a slight increase. The Senate SFOPS subcommittee called for an increase to USAID Maternal and Child Health, from $915 million to $940 million. They also maintained FY24 funding levels for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, Nutrition, and Tuberculosis.

Like in the House bill, the Global Fund received an expected decrease, to stay within the legal ⅓ cap. However, the Senate urged other donors to contribute more, so that the U.S. can increase our support as well. The Senate education numbers may look scary, but the cut from last year’s levels is very normal. The Senate has been proposing less for global education for over a decade now. As expected, the Senate used the President’s Budget Request of $640.55 million. The higher House numbers will likely ensure that final funding is in line with previous years. But we must continue to urge the Administration and Senate to fully fund global education in the future and fight against this proposed cut. 

In addition to these promising numbers, the Senate also included the global health language we requested. One section requires USAID to report on specific maternal and child health interventions. Another piece supports a five-year pledge of at least $1.58 billion for Gavi, and urges other donors to increase their contributions.

In regular order, the full Senate would need to approve the SFOPS bill, and then negotiations would begin between the House and Senate. But with Congress in session for limited days in the lead up to the November election, we don’t expect the bill to move forward any time soon. We do expect both the House and Senate will be back in DC in September to pass a continuing resolution, flat-funding all programs until they can negotiate a bill at a later date. We hope the finalized budget will be passed late this fall, but depending on the 2024 election results, it may be delayed further.

Negotiations may drag on, but the starting position for our issues are strong. Thanks to your passion and outreach, we avoided potential cuts that would have been devastating to foreign aid programs. Throughout August recess and leading up to the election, let’s make sure your members know their constituents care about global health and education. You can make a difference by asking them to push for the highest possible funding level for our priority issues in a final bill.