(The Center Square) After days of drawn-out negotiations, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly passed a short-term government funding stopgap early Saturday morning.
Both chambers of Congress now leave for the entire month of August. The House must approve the Senate’s continuing resolution when it returns before President Donald Trump can sign it into law and prevent a government shutdown on Oct.1.
Unlike the House-passed CR, which simply freezes government funding across agencies at current levels until Dec.4, the Senate’s alternative additionally adjusts funding for certain programs through Dec. 11.
The Senate’s CR slightly boosts funding for SNAP, FEMA disaster relief, wildfire management, U.S. Navy shipbuilding, small business loans, and multiple federal housing programs to meet expected demand through Dec. 11.
It also extends some programs and grants set to run out of funding on Oct. 1, the end of fiscal 2026. Those include the Food for Peace program and other foreign aid; highway infrastructure and surface transportation programs; the National Flood Insurance Program; and certain veterans’ healthcare and economic support programs, among other things.
As additional Democratic sweeteners, 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.
“For months, Senate Democrats have been clear as day. We want to reach across the aisle and hammer out a budget that delivers for the American people,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., told lawmakers Friday. “Today’s CR gives us the breathing room necessary to work out a budget that helps make life more affordable to working families and reins in Trump’s rampant chaos.”
Though Congress is supposed to renew and update funding levels for all federal agencies via 12 annual appropriations bills, it rarely does so on time. Currently, not a single appropriations bill for fiscal year 2027 – which begins Oct.1 – has passed both chambers.
Lawmakers usually pass at least a short-term funding stopgap to buy more time, sometimes passing multiple to cover an entire year, as they did for fiscal year 2025.
The Senate’s bipartisan approach is likely crucial to averting a third costly shutdown, since congressional Democrats have already proven they are willing to block government funding over immigration policy.
Senate Democrats triggered the longest government shutdown in history in February, a 76-day shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, over demands that Republicans implement drastic reforms to ICE and Border Patrol.
Democrats only voted to end the shutdown when Republicans stripped immigration enforcement funding from the Homeland Security appropriations bill entirely, though Republicans later infused ICE and Border Patrol with a three-year cash advance via a budget reconciliation bill.
