Appropriations Watch: FY 2026

Updated 1/30/26: Lawmakers are currently negotiating six Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 funding bills that have not yet been signed into law: Homeland Security; Defense; Labor-HHS-Education; Transportation-HUD; Financial Services and General Government; and National Security-State. Funding is set to expire on January 30, with a partial government shutdown taking place thereafter. On January 29, Senate lawmakers announced an agreement that would provide full-year funding for five of the above spending bills, with Homeland Security funding being extended two weeks to allow for additional negotiations. Since the House of Representatives previously passed these bills on January 22 and combined them into a single package, any changes made in the Senate would require additional votes in the House.

The following six FY 2026 funding bills have been enacted: Commerce-Justice-Science; Energy-Water; Interior-Environment; Agriculture; Military Construction-VA; and Legislative Branch.

The most recent government shutdown, which began on October 1 and lasted through November 12, was the longest shutdown in modern history, lasting 43 days. During the shutdown, the Senate voted several times on two competing funding measures: H.R. 5371 and S. 2882. The shutdown ended when lawmakers eventually passed H.R. 5371, which provided full-year Agriculture, Military Construction-VA, and Legislative Branch appropriations, and continuing funding through January 30, 2026, for other agencies.

The appropriations process for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 has begun, with action in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. 

The discretionary spending caps that were put in place by the Fiscal Responsibility Act (FRA) are no longer binding for FY 2026, though the legislation implies that Congress could continue to implement the caps by raising spending 1 percent above the FY 2025 level. Congress has not yet taken action to address this issue. The Budget Committees of the House and the Senate should debate a new resolution for FY 2026, where a new topline level for discretionary spending will be decided. In the meantime, the House has been developing interim allocations for their subcommittee bills as they work on them, while the Senate may wait until after the reconciliation bill is completed before deciding how to proceed with their allocations.

As we did last year, we will be tracking the bills as they move from the Appropriations Committees to the House and Senate floor and onto the President's desk.

The table below shows the status of each appropriations bill. To learn more about the appropriations process, read our Appropriations 101 paper. 

Appropriations will be one of several deadlines Congress will face over the coming months. See a list of the upcoming fiscal deadlines here.

Sources: House Appropriations Committee, Senate Appropriations Committee, Congress.gov. All dates are in 2025 unless noted otherwise.  

As we explain in Appropriations 101, the House and Senate Appropriations Committees approve 302(b) spending levels for each subcommittee after the topline 302(a) levels are determined by the Budget Committees. Below is an excerpt (click here to read the full report).

The table below compares the FY 2025 302(b) allocations from the House and Senate, the enacted funding levels for FY 2025, the requested levels from the President’s FY 2026 budget request, and the FY 2026 interim House 302(b) allocations.

Sources: CBO Status of Discretionary Appropriations Report, House Appropriations Committee, Senate Appropriations Committee.
*In addition to base discretionary spending, the two six-bill minibus packages provided for certain adjustments to Fiscal Responsibility Act caps, including $12.5 billion in total emergency spending, $2.65 billion for Interior-Environment for wildfire suppression, and a total of $20.4 billion for disaster relief ($20.261 billion to Homeland Security and $143 million to Financial Services). Emergency spending was distributed as follows: $2 billion for Commerce-Justice-Science, $2.5 billion for State-Foreign Operations, and $8 billion for Transportation-HUD.
^These are interim allocations that have not been officially adopted through a budget resolution or a deeming resolution but have been approved by the House Appropriations Committee.

As Congress considers appropriations bills, it is important that lawmakers avoid budget gimmicks and contemplate the longer-term trajectory of discretionary spending.

If you have any questions about terminology or the appropriations process, please see our Appropriations 101 report, and stay tuned to our blog for continuing coverage.