Appropriations Watch: FY 2026

Updated 11/13/25: After 43 days, the latest government shutdown ended on November 12 with a funding measure that provides full-year Agriculture, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Legislative Branch appropriations, and continuing funding through January 30 for other agencies. The Senate approved this amended version of the House-passed CR on November 10 by a vote of 60 to 40. The House then passed the bill on November 12 by a vote of 222 to 209. President Trump signed the measure the same day.

On October 16, the chamber failed to advance, by a vote of 50 to 44, the defense spending bill that previously passed the House on July 18.

During the shutdown, the Senate took numerous votes on two different continuing resolutions: H.R. 5371, which passed the House and was favored by Republicans, and S. 2882, the Democrats' counterproposal. The chamber failed to advance the Republican measure by votes of 55 to 45 on October 1, 54 to 44 on October 3, 52 to 42 on October 6, 54 to 45 on October 8, 54 to 45 on October 9, 49 to 45 on October 14, 51 to 44 on October 15, 51 to 45 on October 16, and 50 to 43 on October 20. However, an amended version of this bill passed the Senate on November 10.

Similarly, the Democratic funding measure failed by votes of 47 to 53 on October 1, 46 to 52 on October 3, 45 to 50 on October 6, 47 to 52 on October 8, and 47 to 50 on October 9.

Previously, on September 30, the Senate voted on these same continuing resolutions. Both measures failed to advance: the House-passed version was rejected by a vote of 55 to 45, while the resolution proposed by Democrats was rejected by a vote of 47 to 53. Since Congress was unable to extend government funding, a shutdown began at midnight on October 1.

On September 19, H.R. 5371, which previously passed the House by a vote of 217 to 212, failed for the first time in the Senate by a vote of 44 to 48. That same day, the upper chamber also rejected the Democrats' counterproposal, which failed by a vote of 47 to 45.

On September 10, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole made a motion to conference with the Senate to advance the Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations legislation.

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.