Congress returns to Capitol Hill this week facing a mountain of government funding work — all amid a record-long shutdown and plenty of uncertainty about the path ahead.
First, House and Senate Republicans will try to get on the same page about the party-line tax and spending bills they plan to pass by June 1 to fund immigration agencies and potentially other partisan priorities.
Then, the House could take up the Senate-passed fiscal 2026 Homeland Security bill, which would provide fresh funding for FEMA and other beleaguered DHS agencies for the first time in nearly two months.
While those processes play out, appropriators will finally be able to start picking through the White House’s fiscal 2027 budget request, welcoming agency heads and other administration officials to the Capitol to question them on their funding proposals.
The trio of priorities will dominate much of the legislative agenda over the course of the next month. It will test Democrats, who are vowing to oppose Republicans’ partisan plans, and it will present major challenges for Republicans, who face internal divisions over reconciliation and DHS funding.
The upcoming appropriations work will play out against the backdrop of the ongoing DHS shutdown and the recent release of President Donald Trump’s budget request for fiscal 2027.
That request asks Congress to turbocharge spending on the military, artificial intelligence and fossil fuels while proposing cuts to environmental programs and an overhaul of the Interior Department.
Appropriators are about to begin probing that request for the first time. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and some other officials will testify on their agencies’ funding proposals this week; other agency heads will follow throughout the spring.
“We are not waiting — hearings are underway, and markups will move this work forward in the weeks ahead,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said in a statement.
“President Trump has always charted a course defined by strength and clarity of purpose — and we look forward to reinforcing that direction through the appropriations process.”
At the same time, the White House is also mulling a supplemental funding request to Congress that could include hundreds of billions of dollars for the Department of Defense, as well as tens of billions for disaster aid and other priorities.
Hanging over lawmakers is the DHS shutdown, which is now poised to stretch beyond the 60-day mark. The balance of FEMA’s disaster relief fund has dwindled to just a few billion dollars during that span, and the agency has had to halt payments to states for disaster recovery work.
“We are crippling our disaster response and recovery abilities by the day,” said Victoria Barton, an associate administrator at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, during a hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee last month.
Congressional Democrats blasted House Republican leaders for not holding a vote on the Senate-passed DHS bill before the two-week recess. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said his colleagues across the aisle “have chosen to hold the country hostage.”
House GOP leaders have been hoping to settle on a plan for the Republican-only reconciliation bills before holding a vote on the DHS spending bill. Some conservatives want to make sure that the first of two potential reconciliation bills will fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol since the Senate-passed DHS bill does not.
The House Freedom Caucus is pushing leaders to fund all of DHS through the party-line process, and some members may insist on certain spending offsets that could complicate the process. The competing demands could complicate the calculus for Republican leaders.
The reconciliation process allows the majority party to sidestep the Senate filibuster and pass certain spending or tax-related language without needing the minority’s votes.
The next reconciliation bill is expected to be mostly limited to ICE and Border Patrol funding. Another reconciliation bill later this year could target additional priorities, including fraud prevention and energy policies.
The scope of the two bills remains uncertain; leaders may try to keep the bills narrowly tailored, but rank-and-file members will likely want to tack on additional legislative priorities.
Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) told reporters that leaders wanted to get the next budget reconciliation package done in a “targeted way, focused, and get it done fast.”
Barrasso and Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) were at the White House on Friday to make sure they were on the same page with the president.
Trump then posted, “Reconciliation is ON TRACK, and we are moving FAST and FOCUSED in keeping our Border SECURE, and getting funding to the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department to continue our incredible SUCCESS at MAKING AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!”
The House Republican Study Committee has floated a list of dozens of policy ideas it wants to see included, including several aimed at streamlining the permitting process for energy projects, killing energy efficiency standards and other regulations, and imposing restrictions on federal grants and subsidies.
It’s not clear how many of those would qualify for reconciliation given the Senate’s strict rules for the process. Some Republicans have already pushed back on the idea of addressing permitting through the party-line process.
“I don’t think that’s the vehicle for [it],” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. “I mean, I think we looked at it before, and, you know, we didn’t have much success with that.”
Jordain Carney contributed to this report.
