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Category: Appropriations

Senate fails to advance DHS funding

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A failed Senate vote Thursday has set the stage for shutting down the Department of Homeland Security beginning at midnight tonight. Republicans tried to advance the same bill that the House approved last month, which would fund DHS through September. As expected, the proposal, which did not add any new curbs on immigration enforcement that Democrats have been pushing for, failed to draw the 60 votes necessary. The vote was 52 to 47, with Senator John Fetterman (D-PA) as the only Democratic senator to vote in favor.

The vote comes after a week of intense hearings, including a Thursday oversight hearing by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security, where Chairman Rand Paul (R-KY) asked three top DHS officials to watch a frame-by-frame video of the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti. The three witnesses—ICE acting Director Todd Lyons, CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott and director of USCIS Joseph Edlow—also testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday. The Senate committee also grilled a panel of Minnesota officials, including Attorney General Keith Ellison, Rep. Tom Emmer, state Rep. Harry Niska and Paul Schnell, the commissioner of Minnesota’s Department of Corrections.

Republicans had hoped that Democrats would be swayed by Thursday’s announcement by Tom Homan, border czar, that the Trump administration would pull immigration agents out of Minnesota. But Senate Democrats have remained firm that they will not support even a temporary funding measure without new guardrails. The House and Senate are both headed into a weeklong recess, meaning a funding lapse for DHS will begin Saturday morning, the third time in five months that parts of the government have been shut down. The shutdown will affect FEMA, CISA, the Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and TSA. Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson said negotiations would continue and that members of Congress should be prepared to quickly return.

Trump signs $1.2 trillion funding bill

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Following the quick turnaround leaders hoped for, the House passed a spending package on Tuesday afternoon to fund most of the federal government for the rest of the fiscal year. Just hours after the House approved the bill, President Trump signed the package into law, officially ending the partial government shutdown. More details on the package can be found here.

The final vote was 217 to 214, with most House Democrats (193) voting against the bill, while 21 Republicans also opposed the measure. Speaker Mike Johnson was optimistic that the bill would pass quickly, but it faced hurdles as President Trump and Republicans pressured conservative holdouts to vote in favor.

While the package fully funds the majority of federal agencies through September, it funds DHS only through the end of next week, setting the stage for difficult negotiations over immigration restrictions. Lawmakers have ten days to reach a broader deal or another short-term agreement to avoid a funding lapse. The funding debate has been focused on ICE and Customs and Border Protection, but DHS includes other major agencies like TSA, FEMA, and the Coast Guard.

Senate leaders scramble to save bipartisan deal to avert shutdown

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In a surprising turn, Senate Democrats were able to strike a deal with President Donald Trump Thursday night to separate DHS funding from the broader appropriations package and fund it for two weeks while Congress debates ICE guardrails.

“Republicans and Democrats have come together to get the vast majority of the government funded until September,” Trump said in a social media post Thursday evening, encouraging members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ vote.”

However, late Thursday, this plan ran into further snags. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina is one of the main objectors, opposing language which repealed a provision allowing senators to sue if their phone records were collected. This contentious “Arctic Frost” provision passed as part of the bill ending the government shutdown last year and was ultimately struck out of the final House bill.

The Senate reconvened this morning to try again to pass the funding measures. If it passes, it will then need to go back to the House, meaning at least a short funding lapse.

On the House side, Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he had been “vehemently opposed” to breaking up the funding package, but “if it is broken up, we will have to move it as quickly as possible. We can’t have the government shut down.” He said he doesn’t expect any floor votes on the funding bill until Monday.

House Republicans have already made it clear they do not want changes to the bill they passed. Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus wrote they stand with ICE in a letter to President Trump on Tuesday.

Final FY26 Appropriations Bills Released

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As plenty of current events grab the national headlines, appropriators on the Hill have been quietly negotiating the remaining FY26 funding bills, ahead of the January 30th shutdown deadline. These bills largely reject the massive cuts proposed by President Trump to HHS, NIH, NOAA, EPA, USGS, and NASA, among many other federal agencies. Congress has also rejected proposals to eliminate multiple federal programs and reorganize agency structures, while looking to rebuild staffing levels after the Trump administration slashed workforces across numerous agencies last year.

Tuesday morning, the Senate and House Appropriations Committee released as one package text of the four remaining FY26 bills: Defense; Homeland Security; Labor, Health and Human Services, Education; and Transportation, Housing, and Urban Development. Full bill text is available here.

These bills will now need to pass both the House and Senate. The Homeland Security bill is expected to be a point of major contention, as the bill includes modest reforms to ICE (including funding for body cameras and de-escalation training), but does not include broader structural reforms many Democrats have proposed. House Committee on Appropriations Ranking Member Rose DeLauro announced yesterday morning she expects it to receive a separate vote in the House.

These bills include:

  • $116.8 billion for the Department of Health and Human Services ($210 million increase from FY25)
  • $48.7 billion for the National Institutes of Health ($415 million increase from FY25)
  • $79 billion for the Department of Education ($217 million increase from FY25)
  • $1.19 billion for TRIO and $388 million for GEAR UP (level with FY25)
  • Retains the full $7,395 maximum grant amount for Pell Grants
  • $838.7 billion for the Department of Defense, including $145.9 billion for research, development, testing, and evaluation functions ($4.7 billion increase from FY25)

Defense Joint Explanatory Statement

Homeland Security Joint Explanatory Statement

Labor-HHS-Education Joint Explanatory Statement

Transportation-HUD Joint Explanatory Statement

Last week, the Senate joined the House in passing a minibus of three bills: Commerce, Justice, Science; Interior and Environment; and Energy and Water Development. These bills now go to President Trump to be signed into law. Text of the three-bill package is available here. While most agencies face minor reductions, they are far below the levels President Trump proposed in his budget request.

The bills include:

  • $8.7 billion for the National Science Foundation (a 3% cut from FY25)
  • $7.25 billion for NASA Science (a 1% cut)
  • $8.4 billion for the Department of Energy Office of Science (a 2% increase)
  • $350 million for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Energy (a 24% cut)
  • $207 million for the National Endowment for the Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts (same funding level as FY25)

Commerce-Justice-Science Joint Explanatory Statement

Energy-Water Joint Explanatory Statement

Interior-Environment Joint Explanatory Statement

Topline Agreement Reached

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Just in time for the holidays, House Appropriation Chair Tom Cole (OK) and Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (ME) have announced a topline agreement for the remaining appropriations bills.

When lawmakers return from their year-end recess, Congress will have four weeks to close out a funding deal before the late-January shutdown deadline. The topline amounts have not been made public, but an agreement is critical to begin negotiations between House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats before the current Continuing Resolution expires at the end of January.

Details per the release:

  • Under this agreement, total FY26 spending will be below the level projected in the current continuing resolution set to expire in the coming weeks, delivering real savings for American taxpayers.
  • Full-year appropriations are necessary to implement Republican priorities aligned with the Trump Administration.
  • Gone are the days of Christmas omnibuses. Funding decisions will move through a deliberate, member-driven process that emphasizes transparency, accountability, and timely consideration.