Rep. Tom Cole Discusses Appropriations Progress After New Committee Role

There’s a long way to go, but the United States House of Representatives is taking critical steps toward the eventual passage of the fiscal year 2025 spending bills, an effort being led by U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), the new chairman of the House Appropriations Committee.

With last week’s primary behind him, Cole can again focus on the Herculean task at hand, managing the appropriations process in a very politically charged presidential election year.

“It’s extremely difficult,” said Cole in an interview Tuesday.

Since taking the reins of the committee just over two months ago, Cole has been doing his best to make up for the late start resulting from Congress not passing the current year budget until March. Cole is pleased with the progress that’s been made.

“We’re moving awfully fast,” Cole said. “We have six bills out of committee, we have one across the floor. We have another six bills to get out of committee [and] I’m comfortable that will get all those bills done by the August break.”

One appropriations bill that's on track to move out of committee this week is the measure that will fund the departments of Commerce and Justice, as well as science-related agencies, known by the shorthand CJS. Total CJS funding comes in at $78.3 billion, an approximate 2% decrease from the FY 2024 funding level. In response to GOP displeasure with federal law enforcement, the bill calls for even deeper cuts to the budgets for the Department of Justice and the FBI — 3% and nearly 4%, respectively.

Democratic leaders issued a blistering statement after the bill text was released Tuesday morning.

“Instead of joining Democrats in decreasing crime and helping Americans feel secure," said Ranking Member Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), "House Republicans are eliminating law enforcement positions and cutting resources for programs that prevent violence, mass shootings, and terrorist attacks."

Cole strongly disagrees.

“I mean, the idea that somehow a three or four percent cut is debilitating? Come on,” said Cole. “A lot of government could use a 3% or 4% cut.”

Cole says, the bottom line is, each of the appropriations bills that make it out of his committee is a starting point for negotiations, given the reality that Democrats control the Senate and the White House.

“[We] recognize, at some point we have to sit down with the Senate,” said Cole. “It’ll have a different set of numbers, it’ll have a different set of priorities, and then we’ve got to reconcile that.”

Cole predicts that reconciliation won’t happen, however, until after the election, in part because Senate appropriators are not keeping pace with the House.