Action on fiscal 2026 bills possible as shutdown enters 4th week

By Andres Picon | 10/20/2025 06:13 AM EDT

The Senate will continue to vote on Republicans’ funding patch. The House will remain in recess.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) during a press conference at the Capitol on Friday. Francis Chung/POLITICO

Senators on Monday will vote on Republicans’ failed government funding patch for the 11th time, with the shutdown appearing likely to stretch into its fourth week.

The House is expected to remain in recess until Democrats and Republicans strike a deal on government funding. Such a compromise remains elusive.

Lawmakers have floated various ideas to begin negotiations on health care subsidies as a means to end the shutdown, but each of those preliminary proposals has been quickly rejected.

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Parallel discussions on advancing fiscal 2026 appropriations bills — including the bipartisan Agriculture bill — have similarly gone nowhere.

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