Sen­ate to begin elec­tion year col­li­sion with House over gov­ern­ment spend­ing

The Sen­ate will begin debate next week on its spend­ing pro­pos­als to fund the gov­ern­ment for fis­cal 2025, tee­ing up the appro­pri­a­tions process that will be a month­s­long bat­tle and is like­ly to include stop­gap mea­sures along the way to avoid shut­downs.
Polit­i­cal ten­sions over spend­ing and hot-but­ton pol­i­cy issues will be inten­si­fied in an elec­tion year when the bal­ance of pow­er in Wash­ing­ton could dra­mat­i­cal­ly shift and alter which par­ty con­trols the nation’s purse strings.
On Thurs­day, the Appro­pri­a­tions Com­mit­tee in the Demo­c­ra­t­ic-led cham­ber will begin con­sid­er­ing three fund­ing bills, which cov­er spend­ing for the leg­isla­tive branch, mil­i­tary con­struc­tion, the Depart­ment of Vet­er­ans Affairs, the Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture, and the Food and Drug Admin­is­tra­tion.
The pan­el, led by Chair­woman Pat­ty Mur­ray (D‑WA) and rank­ing mem­ber Susan Collins (R‑ME), passed all 12 last year in the sum­mer for the first time in sev­er­al years.
House Repub­li­cans are fur­ther along in the process thi …