Photo by Caleb Fisher on Unsplash

On Saturday, the House Appropriations Committee released the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025. This bill would extend government funding through September and avert a shutdown this week, on March 14. The proposed CR would reduce discretionary spending while fully funding core government services.

Americans for Tax Reform urges members to support this clean CR.

Not only is it imperative for President Trump, cabinet heads, and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to continue their important work, but averting a government shutdown will enable Congress to focus on delivering results, legislatively, to the American people through this year’s reconciliation bill. Specifically, making permanent the 2017 Trump Tax Cuts.

In just two months, DOGE has reported $105 billion in savings. This initiative has brought government spending to the foreground, exposing just how little we knew about the spending habits of career bureaucrats. For, perhaps, one of the first times, continued efforts by the executive branch is saving Americans money.

On his own, President Trump has issued countless, pivotal executive orders. These include orders which radically deregulate the federal government, assert energy dominance, transform the border, and withdraw from dangerous DEI policies – to name just a few.

A government shutdown would impede the rapid progress President Trump has made. It is important that this historic momentum continue on, which is why the President himself has endorsed this CR.

Further, averting a government shutdown would allow Congress to focus on advancing “one, big beautiful bill.” While we are confident that Republicans will pass this vital legislation to unleash American energy, enhance border security, and provide tax relief to Americans, it will be a difficult, arduous process, requiring negotiation and careful text writing.

We cannot delay this process. It is crucial for Congress to provide needed certainty to small businesses and avert the largest tax increase in American history.

Failure from Congress to act would mean taxpayers fall back into living under Obama’s tax rates:

  • The standard deduction, currently claimed by 90 percent of tax filers, would be cut in half.
  • Forty million families would see their current Child Tax Credit cut in half.
  • A family of four earning $80,610 on average would see a $1,695 tax hike.
  • More than 26 million small business owners would be hit with a 43.4 percent tax rate.

In order to support the vital work still to be done both on the executive level and legislatively, all members should support the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025.