There are few things that both House leaders and appropriators like to tout more than passing spending bills.
And these next few weeks are crucial for House Republicans to make progress on FY2027 measures before the looming midterm elections drown out the possibility of any more floor action.
Congress will almost certainly need to pass a continuing resolution at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30 to keep the federal government open beyond Election Day. In the meantime, appropriators still want to pass FY2027 spending bills on the floor to set up negotiations for the fall.
If House Republicans can’t quickly pass some more of these bills, they’ll have a lot of ground to make up to keep pace with previous years.
“We need to move these across the floor, and at least put us in a position to get to a conference with the Senate,” said Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.), a senior appropriator.
State of play. House Appropriations Committee Republicans have already advanced all 12 FY2027 spending bills out of the panel, a major achievement for Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.). But it’s up to House GOP leadership to pass them on the floor.
Currently, the House has passed two FY2027 funding bills: Military Construction-VA and Agriculture-FDA.
House Republicans attempted to pass two more bills, Energy-Water and National Security-State Department, before the July 4 recess. But House GOP leadership lost control of the floor and were unable to bring those bills to a vote.
“While in the past we’ve negotiated bills that haven’t passed the floor, it strengthens our leverage if they can pass the floor,” said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), another appropriations cardinal. “I’m hoping folks here will decide to allow us to move forward.”
Let’s rewind. Last year, the House had only passed two bills by the time lawmakers left for the August recess. That was a dismal year for appropriations, mired by two shutdowns.
2024. The House passed five bills by the end of July.
2023. Another bad year for appropriations. The House only passed one spending bill by August.
2022. The House passed six funding bills in July.
2021. Eight spending bills passed the House before the August recess.
2020. The House passed 10 appropriations measures, all in July. That was back when the House would pass around 5 or 6 funding bills at a time — but now House Republicans prefer to pass individual bills, which takes up more floor time.
Needless to say, July is an important month for the spending wars.
