Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — On Tuesday, the U.S. House passed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, H.R. 1968, which extends current discretionary spending levels for the rest of the fiscal year, over six months. It funds core government services, boosts Defense funding and invests in shipbuilding, ensures military paychecks continue with this year’s pay raise included, and upholds Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other critical services.

The Senate must also act this week to pass the legislation in order to prevent a partial government shutdown at the end of the week.

(It needs 60 votes to pass in the Senate.)

This bill appropriates the largest pay increase for junior enlisted Service Members in 40 years, which the Congress had already authorized in the most recent National Defense Authorization Act. It also provides a $500 million boost to WIC, which is federal support through the USDA for Women, Infants and Children. In another key addition, the bill increases funding for air traffic control safety efforts. The House boosted Veterans health care by $6 billion to prevent a shortfall, added $330 million to fund pay raises for wildland firefighters, and bolstered HUD funding by $4.5 billion for low-income families’ assistance.

“Most importantly, this bill would prevent an unnecessary interruption in government funding,” said Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata.

“In American Samoa, we rely on federal support in a number of key areas, and the best outcome for our islands is prompt Senate passage to prevent a shutdown and carry forward the funding essentials such as Medicaid and military pay that are so important to our people, including this year’s much-deserved pay raise for our dedicated enlisted Service Members.

“The best outcome in 2025 is to provide certainty that federal funding is secured, ready and available for the rest of this fiscal year.”

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis is that the bill provides $1.6 trillion of total base discretionary spending for the remaining part-year time frame, with $893 billion for defense and $708 billion for non-defense programs, which is above FY 2024 spending for the full year.