On 25 June, AGU joined 1050 organizations asking leadership in Congress to reject proposed funding cuts for FY25. 

The 1,050 undersigned organizations—which represent the full breadth of investments that support all of America, every day—call on Congress to reject arbitrary and damaging funding levels for Fiscal Year 2025 and, at the very least, to fully appropriate the necessary non-defense discretionary (NDD) funds to keep pace with rising costs and demand and keep poison pill policy riders that undercut the priorities of the American people out of the package. Cutting funding from the FY 2024 levels appropriated just three months ago will do little to reduce the national debt and federal deficit but will greatly jeopardize American competitiveness, security, economic strength, and services on which families and individuals rely.

Vital domestic and international appropriations are a small part of the federal budget—less than one-sixth—yet they fund a wide range of important services and investments that keep America strong now and in the future. Examples include: scientific and medical research; health care for veterans; federal law enforcement; environmental conservation; home energy assistance; housing and child care assistance for low-income families; mental health and substance use disorder treatment; rural development; K-12 education and skills training; nutrition assistance for young children, families, and older people; financial aid for higher and technical education; infrastructure investments in roads and bridges, sewage treatment, safe drinking water, flood control and navigation improvements; diplomacy, humanitarian aid and development; services for victims of gender-based violence; courts and reentry programs; assistance for small businesses; public safety and other programs for older people; life-saving services for people with disabilities; public health; and much more.

Every state and congressional district benefits from NDD investments. Denying NDD programs the increases needed to keep pace with rising costs and provide effective services is a penny- wise, pound-foolish way to address the larger fiscal challenges facing our country.

As seen with enactment of FY24 appropriations law, there is a strong governing majority for more robust investments. Rather than constraining NDD appropriations to an arbitrary and insufficient funding target, our organizations urge you to avoid poison pill policy riders and invest the amounts needed to meet the needs of our country and protect American competitiveness, economic strength, security, and services critical to families and individuals.