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It’s that time of year again. Lawmakers are back at the Capitol facing a very quick deadline to fund the entire government.
And just like every year, the path forward is not yet clear.
Top appropriators in the House and Senate have been in talks on how to move forward with keeping the government’s lights on this fall. But as of now, there is no final plan.
To catch up: The fiscal year ends on Sept. 30, after which federal funding will lapse if new spending legislation is not approved. To do so, Congress must pass 12 appropriations bills that set the budgets for federal agencies.
Almost by design, the process has to be bipartisan. Senate Republicans will need at least seven of their Democratic colleagues to approve whatever plan they cook up. And, just like every year, whatever that bipartisan Senate bill ends up looking like, it’s sure to lose a few fiscal conservatives over on the House side.
“The minute they get 60 in the Senate, I lose at least 30 in the House,” Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., who leads the House Appropriations Committee, said on Thursday. “So I’m going to have to have Democratic friends over here.”
It’s major deja vu. As I said, this happens pretty much every time Congress comes up against the deadline.
So it’s making some lawmakers a little frustrated — and causing others to push for major changes.
“This year, I think we’ve seen more work on getting to the finish line than we’ve seen in a long time, and that there is a good chance, you know, if we get NDAA across, that we could have a fairly high percentage of the overall dollar budget done,” Utah Sen. John Curtis told me this week.
But, ever the realist, Curtis told me he has a “backup plan” stored away just in case.
Over the last few months, Curtis has hinted at introducing legislation that would create a baseline budget that restarts each fiscal year, leaving the current spending levels intact unless Congress passes a new budget. Doing so, he says, would avoid a shutdown but essentially avoids the partisan ploy of using a shutdown threat to wield control over the other.
Curtis told me he still plans on introducing that legislation in the coming months — and he says that when he brings it up to colleagues, they’re usually on board.
“I feel like those who have been here for a short period of time still have faith in the appropriations process,” he said with a chuckle. “And the longer you’ve been here, the less faith you have.”
Curtis isn’t the only one who thinks changes are needed to get Congress back to regular order. I caught up with Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson, who sits on the House Appropriations Committee, who told me there were certain missteps — that happen pretty much every year — that set them back.
First, the president is required to submit his budget request to Congress by the first week of February. That rarely happens, and it didn’t happen this year.
So, Congress got its blueprint late.
Then, Simpson said, Congress spent a lot of time out of Washington. He pointed to the impromptu weeklong recess in July after passing the “Big Beautiful Bill Act” and then again to the five-week break in August.
“People like going home, I don’t blame them,” he told me on Wednesday. “But we’re elected to do a job, so we’ve got to work on that next year.”
So what are the options to avoid a shutdown? There are a few plans being floated.
Cole, along with top Senate appropriator Susan Collins, R-Maine, are considering three full-year appropriations bills for the Department of Agriculture, the legislative branch and military funding. Then, the rest of the appropriations bills can be temporarily extended through what’s known as a continuing resolution.
Simpson shared similar plans being considered, noting there will definitely be a CR in some capacity, and that defense spending should be a priority.
Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy, who is also on appropriations, has frequently expressed to me how important it is that military spending remain a priority for a new budget.
“CRs are really hard on the military, and we can’t neglect our military when the world is dangerous and there are hot wars going on in multiple places in the world,” she told me off the House floor on Thursday.
The next question would be: How long do you temporarily extend government funding? No one knows yet.
The deadline swirling around from appropriators is mid-November. Others have floated until December. You’ll hear from fiscal conservatives and voices in the White House that it should last a whole year, although that’s unlikely.
But Maloy wanted to make sure to point out to me that she thinks talks of a CR are still preliminary. She told me that if they keep up an ambitious pace, they could still meet the Oct. 1 deadline.
“I think part of the problem is that everybody gives up too soon and starts talking about CR while we’re still going through the process, instead of completing the process,” she told me. “If we had more of an attitude of, ‘We have to get this done,’ we would probably get it done.”
Stay tuned to see how that plays out.
Stories driving the week
- Epstein dominates the headlines: Congress could be forced to vote on whether to release the Epstein files, putting Republicans in the hot seat by one of their own party members. Meanwhile, victims of Epstein are pleading with lawmakers to release the files in full.
- Big, beautiful rebrand: The White House met with House Republicans behind closed doors on Wednesday to talk “Love At First Vote,” a briefing by top Trump administration officials on how to advertise the president’s massive tax package that was passed by Congress earlier this summer. Part of that strategy was changing how lawmakers refer to the bill by instead calling it the “Working Families Tax Plan.”
- Utah map saga drags on: A Utah judge on Tuesday denied a request from state lawmakers to stay her earlier ruling tossing the state’s congressional maps ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
Republicans quietly approve new committee to investigate Jan. 6
While the Hill was hounded with headlines covering everything from the Epstein saga to government shutdown to D.C. crime, there was one story that went largely unreported this week: another investigation into the Jan. 6 riot.
Republicans passed a procedural measure to consider the slate of bills up for consideration, which is known as a “rule vote.” Inside baseball talk: Essentially, you have to pass “a rule” to set the parameters for debate and they must be approved before you can vote for a bill.
But this week, Republican leaders tucked in language that likely went unnoticed by several lawmakers.
Here’s how:
In the “rule,” lawmakers outlined everything they wanted to include in the resolution. And tucked into Bullet Point 18 was this language: Provides that H. Res. 605 is hereby adopted.
What is H. Res. 605? Well it’s aptly named: Establishing the Select Committee to Investigate the Remaining Questions Surrounding January 6, 2021.
So there we have it. Past plans to once again look into the Jan. 6 riot led by Trump supporters who wanted to stop the certification of the 2020 election are coming to fruition.
Democrats previously conducted their own investigation into the Capitol riot in 2021, which ultimately placed the blame of the incident on President Donald Trump. As you can imagine, Republicans don’t agree with that conclusion. After all, only one Republican sat on the investigative panel (although that was largely because then-Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy pulled all of his appointees after then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected some of them. Drama!).
Anyway, it’s not yet clear what “remaining questions” Republicans have related to the Jan. 6 riot. The investigation will be led by Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who told me last year when I was reporting for the Washington Examiner that he wanted to turn some of his attention to security personnel and whether internal politicization may have caused some of the security failures on that day.
We’ll see if that’s still his focus. Democrats will have an opportunity to appoint some of their members to the subcommittee, and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said he’d start discussing with other leaders who would be the best to do so.
Quick hits
From the Hill: D.C. residents clash with Congress for first time since Trump takeover. … Democrats warn of government shutdown after GOP lawmakers unveil more spending cuts. … Utah Rep. Burgess Owens focuses on American students’ falling test scores in hearing.
From the White House: Trump’s efforts to federalize public safety spark outrage from Democrats. … Pressure mounting against RFK Jr. amid CDC, vaccine policy turmoil. … Trump says U.S. killed 11 in military strike against ‘narcoterrorists.’
From the courts: In California vs. The Babylon Bee, the satirical website is winning. … Justice Amy Coney Barrett on abortion, faith and the court’s role.
What’s next
The House and Senate will return early next week to continue working toward avoiding a government shutdown. Expect lawmakers to advance bills tightening control on Washington, D.C.
As always, feel free to reach out to me by email with story ideas or questions you have for lawmakers. And follow me on X for breaking news and timely developments from the Hill.