WASHINGTON, DC (March 6)
Dear Leader Schumer, Leader Jeffries, Vice Chair Murray and Ranking Member DeLauro:
We, the National Women’s Law Center Action Fund, urge you to stand united in support of finalizing fiscal year 2025 appropriations instead of a full-year continuing resolution (CR), as such a CR will hurt women, families, and children. Congress is five months past the fiscal year
deadline of September 30, 2024, and has been relying on a series of CRs to extend funding for the federal government and avoid a government shutdown. The next CR deadline is March 14th, and Congress must act swiftly. A full-year continuing resolution would impose significant negative consequences on essential government functions that support the economic security, safety, and health of women and families.
A full-year CR freezes any new projects and related spending, creating economic uncertainty and added stress and job insecurity for our nation’s federal workers and active-duty service members.
Maintaining funding at prior-year levels prevents federal agencies from making necessary adjustments to meet evolving needs of communities that have been affected by health crises, natural disasters, and other economic variables. This delay in adjusting funding to meet growing or new needs impacts a range of issues, like public health measures, nutrition assistance, child care support, and housing assistance, to name only a few.
We are concerned that a long-term CR would specifically impact programs in ways that will disproportionately harm women, children, and families. At a time when many families are feeling the increase costs for essentials like food, housing, and health care, it is imperative that Congress pass a budget that prioritizes women, children, and families. The destabilizing effects
of another CR would be further compounded by the unpredictability of President Trump’s Administration and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE) actions of mass government cuts and the elimination of thousands of federal jobs.
The White House recommended anomalies requesting increased funding for specific programs in a CR are completely inadequate and indeed would compound these problems. The President is
requesting an increase in funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to further fund his inhumane deportations of women, children and families, which would be devastating to American communities and the American economy, as well as to the child care and health care workforces specifically. The list also includes a rescission of the $20 billion in funding for Internal Revenue Service enforcement that was enacted under the Inflation Reduction Act, which will ensure billionaires can continue to evade their taxes and starve support for programs that families depend on. This proposal is estimated to result in $66 billion in lost revenue and further increase the deficit by $46 billion.
We also urge you to use all your power to ensure that no appropriations legislation now or in the future codifies the DOGE arbitrary cuts to essential government agencies. DOGE is not a formal government department and has no legal or executive power to enforce its recommendations. Its findings of “fraud” have been unfounded and erroneous; its unlawful cuts have been counterproductive, indiscriminate, and deeply harmful; and its calculations of “savings” have been fundamentally flawed. Cuts to these essential agencies further harm women and families who rely on their programs and services and will be used to hide the cost of President Trump’s agenda to provide tax cuts for billionaires and wealthy corporations.
Finally, we ask you to use all available leverage to force congressional oversight to put a stop to President Trump’s and Elon Musk’s freezing of congressionally appropriated dollars, which is illegal and unconstitutional.
As negotiations are ongoing, we urge you to take all available steps to ensure that any funding bill includes provisions reasserting Congress’ power of the purse and the responsibility of the executive branch to implement spending laws that have passed Congress and signed into law.
Congress has a responsibility to pass a full-year FY25 budget that reflects the nation’s evolving needs, but Republicans cannot pass any funding bill without Democratic votes. We urge you to use that power to ensure that any funding bill passed by this Congress prioritizes the wellbeing of
our communities and protects the stability and effectiveness of government operation. It is vital that in funding the remainder of FY25, Congress takes steps to ensure adequate funding levels, reject lawless cuts by the administration, and ensure congressional oversight of DOGE consistent with Congress’s Constitutional authority.
Sincerely,
Emily Martin
Chief Program Officer
National Women’s Law Center Action Fun