Bipartisan dealmaking to fund energy, water and environment programs has ground to a halt in the Senate as top appropriators butt heads over spending levels and policy riders.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has been effectively frozen for weeks amid stubborn partisan disagreements and the extended absence of Sen. Mitch McConnell. As the House plowed ahead in recent months, marking up all 12 of the annual spending bills, negotiations in the Senate have gone nowhere.
The deadlock means top appropriators for energy and environment priorities cannot finalize legislation to fund EPA, the Interior Department and the Department of Energy for fiscal 2027 — creating uncertainty for the future of those agencies’ programs as Congress barrels toward the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
“It’s all on pause. The Democrats don’t want to do an approps bill, and even if we did, McConnell’s not here,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), chair of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, referring to the Kentucky Republican’s ongoing recovery from health issues.
“It’s detrimental” to energy and water programs that need longer-term funding certainty, Kennedy said.
But Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee, led by Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.), are eager to get moving on fiscal 2027 spending bills, and they have insisted that they do not want a shutdown come October.
Their biggest grievance is that Republicans are taking up the administration’s request to authorize a significant increase to defense spending while leaving funding for domestic programs relatively flat.
“We need a top line that is fair and not a 4-to-1 defense-spending-over-nondefense-spending increase,” Murray said last week.
Until then, negotiations on the Energy-Water bill, which she leads alongside Kennedy, are “on hold,” Murray said.
Republican appropriators, meanwhile, have balked at some Democrats’ announced intentions to demand votes on hot-button policy riders that the GOP considers to be “poison pills;” those could be politically difficult votes before the midterms.
Some have also accused Democrats of trying to derail the appropriations process to undermine the reelection bid of Republican committee Chair Susan Collins, who is in the throes of a competitive race in Maine.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has not released or marked up any fiscal 2027 bills. At this point last year, the panel had marked up six of its 12 spending bills.
The House has been slow in passing its bills on the floor — with Energy-Water and Interior-Environment in limbo — but the lower chamber has its opening proposals ready.
‘It’s frustrating’
The impasse over fiscal 2027 funding is particularly aggravating for senior Senate appropriators who feel they could be close to a deal on their spending bills, if only they had a top-line level to work with.
The leaders of the Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, who typically produce a bipartisan product with broad support, are waiting on the sidelines.
“We’ve been working on it since the beginning, and you know, we’re ready to move,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the chair of the subcommittee that funds the Interior Department and EPA.
“I would love for us to be able to advance all of our appropriations bills — all of them — but we gotta get moving, and it’s hard to do just that,” Murkowski said. “So it’s frustrating.”
A spokesperson for Murkowski’s Democratic counterpart — Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) — declined to comment on the record.
The Trump administration has proposed cuts to the Interior Department, EPA and renewable energy programs at DOE while suggesting that Congress siphon off funds previously appropriated through the bipartisan infrastructure law toward White House priorities. The administration wants Congress to approve funding increases for mining, oil and gas drilling, artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons.
House appropriators have written most of their fiscal 2027 spending bills to match the White House’s budget requests, losing almost all Democratic support in the process.
Senate appropriators on both sides of the aisle say they are still hoping to land a bipartisan compromise, but neither party has budged on the top line. Some are still optimistic.
“I don’t get frustrated that easily,” said Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), the ranking member on the State and Foreign Operations Subcommittee. “We’ll get our bills done; don’t worry.”
Stopgap negotiations, possible add-ons
The delay on full-year spending bills coincides with parallel negotiations on a short-term funding patch to keep the government running past the September funding deadline and the midterm elections — a common step for Congress during an election year.
The White House has asked Congress to insert additional funding or authorizations, known as “anomalies,” in the continuing resolution, including more than $5 billion for water infrastructure projects, national parks operations and wildfire management.
The House passed a “clean” CR last week with no extraneous policies. Republican leaders left out the anomalies the White House requested, costing them Democratic buy-in.
In the Senate, Collins has been talking to the White House about producing a separate CR with the administration’s add-ons included, and Murray has expressed interest in pursuing that route as long as it’s bipartisan.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said earlier this week that he wants to put a stopgap on the floor before the chamber leaves for recess in two weeks. The House is already away until September.
The White House’s anomalies request includes $1.1 billion to EPA for the restoration of drinking water and stormwater infrastructure in western North Carolina. Communities there are still rebuilding from the damage of Hurricane Helene nearly two years ago.
“The hurricane that went through there destroyed a lot of the stuff,” said Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), the chair of the House Interior and the Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.
The White House is asking for just over $3 billion in spending authorities to keep national parks open and running, including to pay park police salaries and “to recoup costs associated with support of events celebrating America’s Semiquincentennial.”
Another $1.15 billion would go toward wildland fire management to make up for funding that has come from infrastructure law transfers this fiscal year.
The administration is also asking for language to increase the amount of federally managed lands that are excluded from reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act to allow for more aggressive forest management to mitigate fires.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency would be authorized to reimburse states for disaster aid at a faster rate under the White House’s proposal. There is also an ask for allowing funds that were originally appropriated for electric vehicle infrastructure to continue to be transferred to other highway programs.
Disaster, Colorado River aid in the supplemental?
On top of all that, appropriators are debating the merits of an $88 billion supplemental funding request from the Trump administration to top up defense needs, aid struggling farmers and incentivize states to enact election security measures. Some lawmakers are also lobbying for it to include billions of dollars for disaster recovery and the drought-impacted Colorado River.
Most Democrats do not want to authorize additional defense funding to pay for the war in Iran. But the addition of bipartisan priorities could help give the package momentum.
The administration’s proposal urges Congress to include language authorizing the permanent year-round sale of E15 fuel, which is 15 percent ethanol. It is a bipartisan priority thanks to its potential to lower average fuel prices while helping farmers financially.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers from Southwestern states recently sent House leaders a letter asking for supplemental appropriations “to address the increasingly dire condition of the Colorado River Basin.” Prolonged drought there is threatening the water and power supply of 10 percent of Americans.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are also ramping up their demands for any new funding measure to include billions for disaster relief. FEMA’s disaster fund already has billions of dollars to work with, but that funding could begin to run low before Congress is able to approve full-year appropriations.
“We’re going to have to get some buy-in from the leadership to make this a priority,” said Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
California Democratic Sens. Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, North Carolina Republican Sen. Thom Tillis and Utah Republican Sen. John Curtis sent a letter to Collins and Murray last week urging them to include disaster funding.
Republican Sen. Ted Budd said he will not support any supplemental that doesn’t contain disaster aid for western North Carolina. Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley sent appropriators a letter calling for more funding for a popular grant program that helps communities rebuild after disasters.
“This is Congress’ chance to remind [disaster survivors] that we’re serious about helping them get back on their feet,” Budd said last week during a hearing on the supplemental request.
If the supplemental stalls, Republican leaders — particularly in the House — are hoping for a third party-line budget reconciliation bill that could give nearly $100 billion to the military and intelligence programs, along with farm and election security aid.
