Senate debates FY25 closeout supplemental budget, Ways and Means chair outlines major allocations and oversight steps

Senator Robert Roberts, chair of the Senate Committee on Ways and Means, presented the fiscal year 2025 closeout supplemental appropriations bill (House Bill 4615) and described it as “how we responsibly fulfill our duties of balancing the books, reconciling spending gaps, addressing priorities, and putting FY25 to bed.” The chamber debated the committee amendment offered by Roberts that would strike all after the enacting clause and insert the text of Senate document 2655.

Why it matters: The closeout supplemental is the vehicle the Senate uses to reconcile year-end deficits and one-time needs for FY25. Legislators said it contains both large spending items and policy changes that affect health care, housing, higher education and public safety oversight.

Roberts said the bill addresses what he described as a sharp rise in sheriff office overspending, noting the sheriffs “have collectively overspent their appropriations by a $162,000,000” in FY25 compared with $46,000,000 the prior year. He described a three-part strategy in the supplemental: funding key programs, directing an Inspector General review of the 14 sheriff offices’ FY25 finances, and authorizing creation of an…