Senate strikes deal to approve funding bills ahead of August recess

The Hill

3 days ago

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), head of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Friday afternoon that the chamber will be moving forward to pass its first tranche of government funding bills for fiscal year 2026.
The chamber will vote on three full-year funding plans that cover the departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, legislative branch operations, military construction and rural development.
Senators will first vote on a series of amendments from both sides of the aisle as part of the process, and a final vote is expected Friday night.
'It's taken a great deal of work, good faith and negotiation to get to this point,' Collins said upon announcing the development from the Senate floor on Friday.
The deal comes after days of uncertainty on both sides of the aisle over whether the chamber would be able to pass any funding bills before its August recess.
The evolving package had undergone several revisions this week. Republican leaders dealt with frustration in their ranks over some of the funding levels in the legislative branch funding bill, while Democratic resistance to the Trump administration's relocation plans for the FBI's headquarters weighed down efforts to pass the annual Justice Department funding bill.
In remarks on the Senate floor, Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, called the bills 'the best chance we have to get the best outcome for folks back home,' while pushing members against another funding stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), like what the party was forced to swallow in March to keep the government open.
'We cannot have another slush fund CR that gives away more power to Trump,' she said.
Together, the bills would provide more than $180 billion in discretionary funding for the agencies for fiscal 2026 – well over half of which would go toward the annual VA and military construction funding plan.
Lawmakers are hoping to pass further funding legislation when they return from recess in September, as Congress braces for what could be a messy funding fight to keep the government open beyond the start of the fiscal year in October.