Budget season has begun, as Congress receives the 2025 National Expenditure Program, containing the proposed P6.352-trillion budget for next year prepared by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s economic managers.
For the rest of the year, the House and the Senate will scrutinize the budget requests of all government agencies, looking into how they utilized the funds given to them for the current year, and interrogating agency heads about their 2025 budget proposals.
Both chambers of Congress will separately evaluate the proposals through various committee hearings and plenary sessions, and pass their own versions of the spending bill, after which select representatives will convene to reconcile disagreeing provisions of their approved measures. It will then be submitted to the President’s desk for his signature.
Follow the budget debates in Congress through this live blog.