Overview
Last Stop for the Final Minibus. Yesterday, the House passed the last of the appropriations bills, delivering a major bipartisan win and passing the baton to the Senate for the final push before the January 30 funding deadline. The package combines these remaining FY26 bills — Defense, Labor‑HHS‑Education, Transportation‑HUD, and Homeland Security — with the House-passed Financial Services–General Government (FSGG) and National Security–State (or SFOPs) bills into a single consolidated vehicle.
Anticipating partisan debate over the Homeland Security bill, House leaders arranged for floor votes on the minibus in two parts: H.R. 7147 (Homeland Security) and H.R. 7148 (Defense, Labor‑HHS‑Education, and Transportation‑HUD). Both measures passed on Thursday and were combined with H.R. 7006, the two‑bill FSGG, National Security–State package that passed last week, to form a single, six‑bill package. Sending one unified bill to the Senate avoids the unanimous consent process typically required to merge multiple measures, a procedural step that could slow progress with just one week before the government funding deadline. This gives the Senate a cleaner, faster path to passage.
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the minibus next week, though a looming snowstorm in DC could cause slight delays. Lawmakers in both parties, including key appropriators, remain confident it will pass. There is a strong desire on the Hill to finalize updated funding levels as well as palpable optimism about the collaborative legislating of these last few weeks. While every member can find something in the package they like and dislike, the appetite for last‑minute poison pills is low and the determination for progress is high.
Swatting Down Last-Minute Riders: The House Rules Committee reviewed more than 80 amendments to the negotiated bills but allowed only two to reach the floor, and both failed. Most were unrelated policy riders, and pressure from special interests to include them grew as floor consideration approached.
Strategically, this package may be the only "must‑pass" legislation Congress sends to the President before the election, aside from a likely continuing resolution (CR) in September. We think that status made it a prime target for unrelated add-ons, as it is one of the few legislative vehicles large enough to carry them until after the election. While there is ongoing talk of another partisan budget reconciliation bill, advancing such legislation would be a heavy lift for Republicans in an election year. Further, party leaders are unlikely to load a September CR with controversial provisions, as that could risk a government shutdown during campaign season.
House Puts the Freeze on Arctic Frost Payouts. Through the rule vote, the House repealed a provision inserted by Senate Republican leadership last year that allowed Republican senators to sue the U.S. for hundreds of thousands of dollars if their electronic records were unknowingly obtained by federal investigators. The measure, which was widely viewed as benefiting senators whose data was seized during the Biden‑era "Arctic Frost" investigation, had been quietly slipped into legislation reopening the government without the knowledge of appropriators or House leadership.
Against the backdrop of federal workers receiving no pay for 43 days during the October shutdown, the juxtaposition of allowing lawmakers to pocket taxpayer‑funded windfalls sparked bipartisan backlash. The House unanimously voted last year to repeal the policy, but the Senate never took up the measure, as Majority Leader John Thune (R‑SD) has remained firmly opposed to the walk-back.
Now, House leaders are borrowing a tactic from the Senate’s playbook. By tying the repeal to the must-pass funding measure and adjourning for a week, they are "reverse‑jamming" the upper chamber, forcing senators to weigh their opposition to the policy change against support for the broader appropriations package.
FY27 On Deck. As FY26 enters the home stretch, FY27 is already taking shape. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is expected to release the President's budget proposal in March, following the State of the Union address.
Once FY26 wraps, our appropriations team will provide more details on what to expect with FY27, including timing considerations and process dynamics in an election year, when legislative calendars tend to compress and political stakes rise. Stay tuned for more as we gear up for FY27!
