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Did Congress approve Joe Biden's key 2024 budget priorities?
Executive Summary
Congress did not adopt Joe Biden’s full slate of 2024 budget proposals as presented in his $7.3 trillion FY2024 request; lawmakers instead passed a mix of targeted appropriations and stopgap funding that adopted some administration priorities while rejecting or postponing major tax and spending proposals [1] [2] [3]. Key portions of Biden’s agenda—such as tax increases on corporations and high earners and expansive new family‑leave and child‑care programs—were rebuffed or sidelined, while Congress approved specific funding packages and appropriations bills that reflect bipartisan compromises [1] [4] [2].
1. Why Biden’s $7.3 trillion plan was largely a campaign blueprint, not a legislative victory
President Biden’s FY2024 budget request presented ambitious tax and spending changes—raising corporate and high‑income tax rates, expanding child tax credits, funding universal paid family leave, and boosting housing and child‑care investments—but it was framed in the White House as an election‑year policy agenda rather than a near‑term legislative roadmap. Congressional leaders from the House, led by Republicans, publicly rejected the package as excessive and unlikely to pass the appropriations process intact [1]. Reuters summarized the dynamic bluntly: the budget served as a campaign pitch and faced immediate pushback from House leadership, signaling that the administration’s comprehensive proposals would require negotiation and substantial modification to gain enactment [1]. The result was that the headline policy asks largely did not move as proposed.
2. What Congress did approve: targeted appropriations and averted shutdowns
Congress moved instead with piecemeal appropriations and a short‑term continuing resolution, passing and sending to the President several spending bills that funded major departments and a broader FY2024 funding package while avoiding a shutdown [2] [3]. A package covering six appropriations bills—Justice, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, Transportation and related programs—passed both chambers with bipartisan support and secured investments such as increased pay for federal firefighters, hiring for air‑traffic controllers, and full funding of WIC benefits [2]. PBS and AP coverage noted that these enacted measures represented substantial but selective alignment with Biden’s priorities, absorbing some of his administration’s funding requests while leaving intact many Republican fiscal constraints [4] [2].
3. The scope of partial agreement: wins, compromises, and omissions
The enacted FY2024 funding packages included incremental increases for areas Biden emphasized—education, healthcare, child care and veterans’ services—but stopped short of authorizing sweeping new programs or the tax reforms central to the President’s request [5] [2]. Congressional votes demonstrate a pattern of compromise: Democrats preserved or gained funding for social programs, while Republicans limited expansions and cut proposed revenue changes. The net effect was a legislative outcome that advances some administration priorities materially but rejects major new revenue and entitlement-style expansions, illustrating the difference between a presidential budget proposal and the eventual negotiated appropriations that Congress enacts [5] [2].
4. Temporary measures and the politics of delay: continuing resolutions and negotiation leverage
Lawmakers also relied on short‑term continuing resolutions to extend FY2024 levels in some areas, buying negotiation time and deferring decisions on larger policy items in Biden’s agenda [3]. These stopgap measures maintained existing funding without adopting new policy proposals and thus did not constitute approval of Biden’s broader fiscal package. The administrative proposals for FY2025—such as student‑loan changes and Pell Grant increases—remained proposals, not enacted law, demonstrating how continuing resolutions can preserve the status quo while sidelining transformative elements from the President’s request [3].
5. Media consensus and divergent framings: campaign messaging vs. congressional reality
Press reporting contrasted the administration’s campaign framing of the FY2024 budget with congressional reaction: outlets like Reuters emphasized the budget’s role as a political pitch and noted swift rejection by House leaders, while AP and PBS highlighted the tangible appropriations that did pass and the President’s signature to avert a shutdown [1] [2] [4]. This split coverage reflects two factual angles: the White House presented a comprehensive policy vision, and Congress enacted selective funding measures through bipartisan compromises. Both accounts are accurate: Biden’s full priorities were not enacted, even as portions of his funding agenda were adopted through the appropriations process [1] [2].
6. Bottom line: partial enactment, not full approval of Biden’s 2024 priorities
The final legislative record shows partial adoption: Congress approved specific FY2024 appropriations and averted a shutdown, delivering funding aligned with some of Biden’s priorities, but it did not approve the President’s comprehensive tax and spending package as proposed in his $7.3 trillion request [2] [1]. The administration scored discrete wins within the negotiated bills, but the broader, transformative elements of the FY2024 budget remained unapproved and subject to future negotiation or campaign politics [5] [3].