While the continuing resolution is a step in the wrong direction, we must stay focused on the even bigger fight ahead: budget reconciliation.              

After threats of a government shutdown, President Trump signed the GOP-led continuing resolution (CR) into law. The GOP-crafted CR provides funding for discretionary spending through September 30, the end of the fiscal year. 

However, it is not a flat (or “clean”) extension of FY 2024 budget authority. The bill actually shifts quite a bit of money around - cutting $13 billion from domestic spending categories and boosting spending on weapons and mass deportation over FY 2024 levels. Unlike the usual budget process where justifications and parameters are provided for budget adjustments, the CR hands Trump and his administration broad and undefined authority over many of the changes.

In the end, ten Senate Democrats joined Republicans to pass the bill over the objections of House Democrats. The CR is separate from the House and Senate plans for budget reconciliation, which is ongoing and threatens additional (and much larger) cuts to programs including Medicaid and food stamps - as well as even more money for the Pentagon, mass deportations, and tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. 

Some of the numerous anomalies within the CR include:

$621 million increase for mass detention and deportations

• The CR authorizes an additional $485 million for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations and $136 million for the Department of Justice’s Federal Prisoner Detention program to facilitate Trump’s cruel, costly, and ineffective mass deportation policy. Private prisons will disproportionately benefit from this budget increase.  

$185 million cut for nuclear nonproliferation to boost nuclear weapons 

• The CR cuts $185 million from the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) nuclear nonproliferation program, which aims to curb the spread of atomic weapons. At the same time, it adds $185 million to the budget for NNSA “weapons activities” to increase production of nuclear arms. FY 2024 funding for NNSA nuclear weapons activities was already more than seven times greater than NNSA nonproliferation funding ($19.1 billion vs. $2.6 billion), exacerbating a dangerous budget imbalance that increases the global risk of nuclear armageddon.

$6 billion overall increase for the Pentagon

• While the CR slashes approximately $11 billion from the Pentagon’s Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation (RDT&E) and procurement accounts from FY 2024 levels, these cuts are offset by even larger increases - bringing the total Pentagon budget to $892.5 billion (not including nuclear weapons and some other military spending).

• The Army’s missile procurement budget is set to increase by 30% from FY 2024, or by $1.4 billion, to total nearly $6 billion for the year - while mental health, child, and disability programs are being cut by more than one billion. The U.S. is already the world’s largest weapons producer and exporter - including to the majority of the world’s authoritarian leaders. It is well established that U.S.-made weapons too frequently facilitate human rights abuses, including Israel’s ongoing genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people, and produce widespread toxic contamination that poisons Americans at home. Poll after poll show Americans would rather have their tax dollars spent on public services like healthcare than subsidize weapons manufacturers who profit from genocide and endless war.

• In addition, the CR authorizes an additional $8 billion for the military’s Central Command and European Commands while gutting funding for crucial humanitarian aid. 

This CR is a step in the wrong direction. Congress is increasing an already overly-militarized federal budget that disproportionately benefits war profiteers and corporations at the expense of working people. The Pentagon has never passed an audit; military spending should be under greater scrutiny, not less. The willingness of policymakers to subsidize Pentagon golf courses for the top brass while cutting the Toxic Exposure Fund for veterans sickened by burn pits exemplifies Washington’s misplaced priorities.  

There are no militarized solutions to the challenges plaguing American communities. Higher levels of military spending actually worsen economic inequality, exacerbate racialized police violence, fuel the climate crisis, and crowd out funding for public programs that strengthen communities and families. Terrorizing and tearing apart immigrant families will do nothing to lower the cost of living, raise wages or create jobs, or address the root causes of migration, which include U.S. foreign policy.  

Moreover, Congress’s willingness to cede authority over federal spending to the executive branch should set off alarm bells for anyone interested in improving government efficiency and preserving constitutional freedoms. 

Handing greater authority over to the Trump Administration is especially concerning, given the scale and scope of constitutional violations in just the first few months of his second term - including the illegal attempt to deport Mahmoud Khalil, which Trump stated will be “the first of many.” The U.S. was recently added to an international watchlist due to the rapid decline in civic freedoms under President Trump. Congress should be doubling-down on demands for executive accountability, not abdicating its oversight role over government spending.

While this CR poses a setback, a larger fight over the federal budget still lays ahead with reconciliation where Republican leaders aim to cement Trump’s MAGA agenda, including deep cuts to mandatory spending programs like Medicaid. It will be critical for movements and policymakers to mobilize against these even more extreme militarized increases, cuts to social services, and tax giveaways to the wealthy and corporations. 

There is still time to block the GOP’s most harmful proposals and fund services like housing, healthcare, and education for people and families struggling to get by.