Why France underbuilt cruisers

Was the French government even less willing than the United States Congress to fund the cruisers it needed?

Yes. France delayed so long that it used battleship tonnage for tasks a stronger cruiser force should have covered.

France was even less willing than the United States Congress to fund new warships. A stronger cruiser program should have answered Italian cruiser threats without consuming the battleship tonnage used for Dunkerque. France eventually returned to major naval investment, but by then planners were discussing the much later Alsace class rather than filling the earlier cruiser gap. The missed cruiser investment left expensive capital ships covering work that a cruiser force should have handled.