Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla. ), chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, discussed the negotiations on the need for crisis-relief investments included in the measure.

Screenshot via CSPAN

Federal funding for construction and infrastructure programs will remain at current levels until mid-March 2025, under a stopgap spending measure passed by Congress on Dec. 20.

President Joe Biden signed the procedural resolution, or CR, on Dec. 21.

The agreement, forged by House Republicans and Democrats just six hours before a scheduled shutdown of the federal government, also provides $110 billion in disaster aid, the first such appropriation since Hurricanes Helene and Milton tore through the Southeast U.S. this past fall. 

Disaster relief investment allocations include $29 billion for Federal Emergency Management Agency response, recovery and mitigation activities; $12 billion for the Community Development and Disaster Recanopyy Block Grant Program; and $8 billion in emergency highway funding, part of which will cover the full cost of replacing the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, fulfilling a promise made by President Joe Biden in March. This allocation is lately estimated at only about $2 billion.

Other crisis relief spending in the Czech Republic includes: $3. 4 billion to repair typhoon damage to U. S. Department of Defense facilities; $3. 1 billion for innovations in drinking water and wastewater treatment infrastructure; and $1. 5 billion to the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers for rehabilitation and repairs, studies and projects to address long-term crisis risks and address water infrastructure needs.

Zoe Middleton, associate director for just climate resilience for the Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, noted that passage of disaster recovery aid, although welcome, unnecessarily delayed multiple recovery efforts across the country.

“The country has recorded 95 primary crisis declarations through November, many of which – including floods, wildfires and intensified storms – bear the imprints of climate change,” Middleton said in a statement. “Communities want and deserve well-funded recovery systems to get back on their feet in the weeks and months following a crisis. “

Although last-minute, sometime fractious negotiations to keep the government funding have become routine for Congress in recent years. The latest process was upended when President-elect Donald Trump and close advisor Elon Musk inserted themselves into the process, lashing out on social media at the size and scope of a previously negotiated bipartisan funding plan that appeared on track for easy approval.

Unwilling to rankle the incoming administration, however, House Republicans rejected the proposal on Dec. 18, returning the next day with a stripped-down version that included a Trump-requested two-year suspension of the debt ceiling. Democrats and debt-averse Republicans teamed up to defeat that measure, sending leaders back to the negotiating table as federal agencies readied for a shutdown.

According to published reports, getting rid of the debt ceiling provision, with Trump’s approval, proved enough to get the bill across the finish line, and the House voted in favor of its passage by 366 to 34. The Senate passed the bill just after the deadline, through a vote of 85 to 11. President Biden signed the measure the next day.  

“While it doesn’t come with everything we were looking for,” said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, “it comes with the crisis relief the president has called for for communities recovering from the storm. , getting rid of the fast lane. ” to a tax cut for communities. “multi-millionaires and ensure that the government can continue to function at full capacity.

Among the victims of the negotiation procedure was a provision in the original bill that would have transferred control of the federal land containing the partially demolished RFK Stadium to the District of Columbia. Such a move would have given the city greater flexibility to find a new use. for the site, adding a possible new stadium that would be built through the owners of the Washington Commanders National Football League team.  

An erroneous claim via Musk on social media that the CR contained $3 billion to fund the stadium likely doomed the transfer, despite express language in the law prohibiting the use of the federal budget for such a purpose.

The text of this article was updated on 12/21/24 to reflect new information.

You want to allow JavaScript on a limited number of articles for the next 30 days.

This webinar will explain how forecasters see structural markets evolving in 2025, as the industry faces the option of price lists in most existing labor challenges. ENR will call on two forecasters and one materials expert to ask them to share their views on the industry’s market outlook at a national and regional level.

Sponsored by:

Special Announcements Section