An original concurrent resolution setting forth the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034.
S. Con. Res. 7 is an original concurrent budget resolution for the 119th Congress that sets the overall budgetary framework for the federal government. It establishes the recommended levels for federal revenues, new budget authority, and budget outlays, and it projects deficits and the federal debt from fiscal year 2025 through 2034. It also specifies the budgetallowances by major functional categories (defense, international affairs, health, education, etc.) for each year, and it includes Senate-specific provisions on Social Security and Postal Service discretionary expenses. In addition to the baseline budget levels, the resolution creates mechanisms for budget reconciliation (to be used to advance deficit-reducing or deficit-increasing legislation within stated ranges) and reserve funds intended to accommodate reconciliation or deficit-neutral legislation. The bill is a framework for budgetary discipline and process, not a set of spending laws itself. The resolution’s numbers depict a long-term spending envelope and debt trajectory that Congress could use to guide appropriations and policy changes. It foregrounds a detailed mix of spending by function, while also establishing targets for revenues relative to baseline/current policy and automatic offsets (through sections like “Allowances” and “Undistributed Offsetting Receipts”). It also contains enforcement provisions and procedural rules intended to shape how future budget and reconciliation measures are produced and adjusted within the agreed framework.
Key Points
- 1Budget framework and enforcement: The resolution declares itself a concurrent budget for FY2025 and sets budgetary levels (revenues, new budget authority, outlays, deficits, and public debt) for 2025–2034. It provides a formal structure for how Congress should measure and enforce budget discipline across both chambers.
- 2Major functional categories: It specifies year-by-year budget authority and outlays for each major functional category (e.g., National Defense, International Affairs, Health, Medicare, Social Security, Education, Transportation, Administration of Justice, Net Interest, etc.). This creates explicit spending envelopes for each policy area over the decade.
- 3Reconciliation process: Title II instructs committees in both the House and Senate to report deficit-reducing or deficit-increasing legislation within specified monetary ranges for fiscal years 2025–2034. The House and Senate are to submit recommendations by a set date, and the Budget Committees are to report a reconciliation bill carrying out those recommendations with limited revisions.
- 4Reserve funds and adjustments: Title III creates reserve funds for reconciliation and deficit-neutral legislation, allowing certain adjustments to allocations and aggregates to accommodate legislation while attempting to preserve the overall budgetary framework. It also contemplates changes to definitions, baselines, and allocations as needed.
- 5Senate-specific Social Security and Postal Service provisions: Section 1201–1202 provide budgetary levels for Social Security revenues and outlays, Social Security administrative expenses, and discretionary Postal Service administrative expenses within the Senate’s budget enforcement framework.
- 6Overview of totals and trajectories: The resolution lays out projected revenue levels, new budget authority, and outlays, as well as deficits and debt (both gross and debt held by the public) across 2025–2034, plus detailed function-by-function numbers. These figures imply a growing debt burden and rising total outlays over the period, with revenues growing more slowly than outlays in many years.