Congress punts government funding deadline to Dec. 11

(The Center Square) – The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a funding stopgap to keep federal agencies open past Sept. 30, the end of fiscal year 2026, sending it to the president’s desk for his signature.

The three-month continuing resolution, which the Senate approved prior to recessing for the month of August, punts the deadline to fund the government until Dec. 11. That allows lawmakers to address the thorny responsibility until after the midterm elections.

“Republicans have made remarkable progress towards returning to regular order and restoring the appropriations process the way it's supposed to work, to a committee-driven approach as it should be,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters Tuesday.

“And our appropriators have worked very hard to restore that muscle memory, and we are really, really grateful for their work, because that is how you act as a good steward of taxpayer dollars and resources. And we're going to continue all that great work,” Johnson added.

Though Congress is supposed to renew and update funding levels for all federal agencies via 12 annual appropriations bills, it rarely does so on schedule. Lawmakers usually pass at least a short-term funding stopgap to buy more time, sometimes passing multiple stopgaps to cover an entire year, as they did for fiscal year 2025.

Currently, not a single appropriations bill for fiscal year 2027 – which begins Oct.1 – has passed both chambers.

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The CR freezes most government funding streams at current levels, but it also extends some programs and grants set to run out of money at the end of the fiscal year.

Among other things, these include the National Flood Insurance Program; a handful of foreign aid programs, such as Food for Peace; key highway infrastructure and surface transportation programs; and certain veterans’ healthcare and economic support initiatives.

Additionally, the bill temporarily prohibits the Office of Management and Budget from tasking political appointees with decisions on grant awards and prevents any new funding — including cross-agency funding transfers — to immigration enforcement agencies.

Senate Republican leaders included that measure in the bill in order to win over the majority of Democrats, who have already thrice proven since the 119th Congress began that they are willing to force a government shutdown if their policy demands aren’t met.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., told the press Tuesday that “even though doing CRs is a stupid way to run [the] government…it's the only alternative that's going to be put before us.”

“We have a whole another month left, and the Republicans who control the House, the Senate and White House, are basically waving the white flag of surrender and saying we don't know how to govern. We don't know how to pass appropriations bills, so we're just going to pass this continuing resolution. It is not a good way to run our federal government,” Aguilar added.