Democratic appropriators are bracing for what could be a bruising fiscal 2026 funding fight. They’re gaming out a multipronged strategy that they hope will help soften incoming blows to clean energy and environment programs.
Discussions on the next round of spending bills are set to begin in earnest in the coming weeks when President Donald Trump unveils his budget request to Congress. Lawmakers and observers off Capitol Hill expect that proposal to call for sweeping cuts and reorganizations that would target Democratic and even bipartisan priorities with unprecedented reductions.
The opening of budget season comes just one month after Senate Democrats caved to a Republican-written stopgap bill that funds the government through September at fiscal 2024 levels. Progressives in Congress and outside activists were outraged, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) calling it “a betrayal.”
This time around, Democratic lawmakers are eager to avoid getting steamrolled by the administration and Congress’ Republican majorities. Though their options are limited, they’re looking to use every lever at their disposal to try to exert maximum control over the negotiations.
“We’re looking for every opportunity possible,” said Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), ranking member on the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee. She added, “It won’t be easy; we will have a different kind of playing field to work on.”
Even in an environment in which Republicans are insisting on cuts, Democrats say there are several areas they hope could see funding boosts, including the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, nuclear waste management, agricultural subsidies, water and sewer management projects and Superfund and Brownfields cleanups.
Still, Trump’s budget request is expected to be infused with suggestions from Elon Musk and the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, which has spent the past several months promoting legally questionable cuts and staff reductions at EPA, the Interior and Energy departments and other agencies.
The administration is also getting ready to send Congress a DOGE-inspired rescission package to repeal more than $9 billion in already appropriated funds.
Some Republicans and their constituents are increasingly expressing concern about the drastic nature of those proposals. Democrats are hoping to use that discord to keep Republicans at the negotiating table and try to secure bipartisan outcomes.
They say they are going to rely on the 60-vote threshold for passing appropriations bills to try to secure concessions, as parties in the minority have always done. But they are also eyeing ways to get more aggressive and more creative.
Appropriators, aides, advocates and lobbyists say the Democratic strategy this year is poised to include a focus on writing more careful and deliberate bill language to try to impose guardrails on the administration’s spending moves. That effort failed earlier this year, but Democrats say they have to try again.
Their appropriations plan will also involve a stronger push to appeal to administration officials’ favored programs to try to achieve bipartisan wins. And it will feature a bolstered messaging and pressure campaign targeted at everyone from Cabinet members to Republican lawmakers and constituents.
“Republicans are kind of walking the plank on behalf of Trump in pushing an agenda that’s unpopular in their own districts,” said Seth Nelson, deputy communications director at Evergreen Action. “That sets up a very clear contrast, and we’re trying to help Democrats make that case.”
Progressives like Nelson will be watching Democrats’ actions closely this time around after many felt burned after the March capitulation.
Congressional Democrats will be up against stiff resistance from Republicans and Trump, who will push hard for conservative spending bills. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) is already making clear that any attempts to insert language to restrict significant spending reforms will be a nonstarter.
“We’re not going to sit here and be their proxy to rein in a Republican president. That’s just not happening,” Cole said in a recent interview. “And look, if you can’t make a deal with [Senate Appropriations Chair] Susan Collins [R-Maine] and me, who the hell do you think you’re going to make a deal with over here? So, hopefully they learned that lesson.”
Clamping down in committee
Much of the Democratic push to preserve clean energy and climate funding will happen behind the scenes and in committee as staffers begin to draft bill language over the coming months.
Programmatic and language requests, earmark requests and amendments are all poised to play a role in Democrats’ push to have their priorities reflected in the final product — especially after the full-year spending bill Congress passed in March left out a year’s worth of earmarked funding for projects in members’ districts.
House and Senate Appropriations chairs have issued guidance to members on fiscal 2026 earmarks. The House will have a cap of 15 requests per member across all bills, while senators will be able to request more.
While the majority can simply reject most of those requests, Democrats say those levers are valuable tools for raising awareness about funding needs for programs or projects that could ultimately draw enough support across the aisle to make it into the final spending bills.
They also present an opportunity for appropriators to propose more carefully worded language and stipulations in the bills to ensure their priorities hold up against the Trump administration’s potential attempts to freeze, reject or reprogram funds.
“We have to put the directives in and we have to hold for them, fight for them, which is what we’re going to do,” said Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), ranking member on the House Appropriations Committee.
The ranking members on the House and Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittees — Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) — have already indicated that they plan to pursue changes to the Army Corps of Engineers’ funding authorities “to guarantee congressional control” after senior Army Corps officials reprogrammed funds without the required approval from appropriators.
Kaptur and Murray sent a letter last month to senior Republican appropriators and the acting assistant secretary of the Army for civil works expressing “alarm and dismay” about the Army Corps reprogramming $4.75 million from a California ecosystem project to an Alaska flooding project. They said they have concerns that the Corps’ current reprogramming authority “is too broad.”
Maintaining bipartisan control over spending language, Murray said in a recent floor speech, “is the most important guardrail we can place on an administration that looks to punish people they disagree with and strips funding from priorities like Army Corps dam repairs, or public transportation projects, or from public schools and universities.”
House Appropriations subcommittees have already begun holding hearings to allow members to highlight their individual funding wishes. They have until early or late May to submit their requests, depending on the subcommittee.
‘What are their ideas?’
Efforts to restrain the Trump administration, which has been intent on flouting spending laws, will have its limits.
Democrats say they will have to find creative ways to appeal to administration officials’ interests — especially on bipartisan priorities such as farming, infrastructure, nuclear energy and clean air and water.
Appropriators are eager to see the administration’s budget request and to hear from Cabinet secretaries in upcoming committee hearings to learn what they want to work on and where they might find success in pushing for extra funding.
“What are their ideas?” said Kaptur. “We’re operating in a very cloudy environment, so they need to crispen it up.”
Kaptur said Democratic appropriators could try to appeal to Trump and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for example, to try to shore up support for a financial solution to the debt that cities across the country have accrued in trying to meet EPA environmental mandates.
She said Trump’s background as a real estate developer could potentially help Democrats make a winning argument for increasing funding for shoreline restoration projects.
“I’m anxious to see the president as a builder,” Kaptur said. “Well, what about building and retrofitting some of these coastal areas and communities that are facing repeated flooding and deterioration because of the rising sea levels?”
“I’m hoping that they will have a consciousness of that,” she added, “but we’ll see when they testify.”
Aides and lobbyists expect Democrats to continue to try to strike deals with Republican appropriators as the bill writing gets underway. That could involve giving up concessions on certain Republican-favored dollar amounts or language in order to secure support for some of their own priorities.
Building public support
For Democrats, administration officials’ testimony will also be an opportunity to grill Trump and DOGE on spending cuts and to add new fuel to their monthslong messaging campaign against them.
Upcoming hearings, they hope, will mobilize constituents to demand more support for clean energy and climate initiatives and put new pressure on Republican appropriators to reject proposed cuts to those programs.
“We’re going to use the opportunity of actually having information in front of us, having them have to commit on paper to what they’re going to do,” said Pingree. “And then I think we can go out and build public support, which will help us to convince some of our Republican colleagues.”
“Let’s get to it,” said Murray. “Let’s show the American people exactly what Trump is doing. What is the problem with that?”
The idea is to bolster the softer messaging Democrats have been putting out in press conferences, television interviews and hundreds of letters to administration officials expressing concern and calling for congressionally appropriated funds to be spent fully.
They also want to continue making energy and climate action a pocketbook issue, highlighting ways in which the administration’s proposed cuts could ultimately raise energy prices for Americans and make them more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Democrats say those efforts could make it easier for voters to cut through Republican messaging on clean energy and environmental regulations and facilitate grassroots support for maintaining funding for those priorities.
“I think [Republicans] are kind of using the vitriol right now of language — of climate change and deregulation — to get what they want,” Pingree said. “But when people see what they’ve done, I think it’s going to be pretty serious.”
