For the first time in more than a year, the House and Senate produced compromise spending bills that could lay the groundwork for a broader deal to fully fund the government.
The package of three fiscal 2026 bills, which cleared the Senate Monday, contains both Democratic and Republican priorities and rejects most of the steep funding cuts sought by the Trump administration and House GOP lawmakers.
The bills are the product of months of negotiations, and neither side got everything it wanted. There are wins for conservatives, such as cuts to Department of Agriculture climate hubs, and wins for Democrats, including full funding for the Government Accountability Office.
Passage could set the tone for the rest of the fiscal 2026 spending cycle and create a pathway for more bipartisan spending bills — especially with both sides appearing eager to avoid another costly shutdown.
A promising sign emerged Monday, when Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.), one of the loudest voices calling for funding reductions, said he was leaning in favor of the package.
It will be paired with a bill to reopen the government through Jan. 30 and a promise of a Senate vote on a Democratic bill to extend expiring health care subsidies.
Harris, chair of both the House Freedom Caucus and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, told Fox News that despite the absence of sweeping cuts, he “would probably be a ‘yes’ vote” on the package assuming that the Senate passes it as is.
Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.) touted the Democratic wins in the spending bills, even as she voted against proceeding to the package because of the lack of guaranteed health care reforms.
The three bills in the package, known as a “minibus,” are Agriculture-FDA, Legislative Branch and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he was encouraging members to return to Washington immediately in anticipation of Senate passage.
Here are five takeaways from the bipartisan minibus that could head to President Donald Trump’s desk as soon as Wednesday.
Climate hub cuts
The negotiated Agriculture-FDA bill would slash funding for the USDA’s 10 climate hubs, which produce regional research and data on extreme weather, natural disasters and droughts to help farmers make informed decisions.
The office of Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced the cuts, but the scope of the reduction is unclear. The climate hubs are funded through an array of federal grant programs.
The cuts, endorsed by House Republicans, could hit regional climate hubs in the home states or districts of key members of Congress focused on agricultural issues.
One of the 10 hubs, for example, is in New Hampshire, home to Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen and Maggie Hassan — two of the lead negotiators of the deal to end the shutdown.
Shaheen is also the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, meaning she signed off on the cuts. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.
Another one of the USDA climate hubs is located in the district of Rep. Frank Lucas (R-Okla.), a former chair of the House Agriculture Committee.
Rep. Mike Collins (R-Ga.), chair of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, represents a district with another climate hub.
So does Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), who co-chairs caucuses focused on disaster recovery and wildfire management. The district of Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) also hosts a climate hub.
Appropriations leaders likely kept the House’s proposed climate hub cuts in the compromise Agriculture-FDA bill as a sweetener to help maintain Republican support for the full package. They similarly kept the GOP’s proposed reductions to programs focused on urban agriculture.
Support for water, conservation
The Agriculture-FDA bill supports a range of federal water and conservation programs.
Republicans have previously pushed to reduce some USDA conservation assistance for farmers. The Trump administration proposed cutting conservation funds by hundreds of millions of dollars.
The legislation contains about $1.4 billion to support the “revitalization of aging water and wastewater infrastructure,” according to a summary.
USDA’s Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations budget would get $50 million under the negotiated proposal. An additional $3 million would be set aside “for the rehabilitation of aging dam infrastructure to ensure safety and water access to rural communities,” the summary states.
About $10 million would go toward irrigation modernization to “alleviate challenges faced primarily in Western states.” That could include drought, fish and wildlife projects, and certain renewable energy production efforts, according to the bill report.
Many of those projects are funded through congressionally directed spending, more commonly known as earmarks.
Murray’s office said in a bill summary that the legislation “rejects President Trump’s senseless proposal to eliminate all discretionary funding” for conservation technical assistance grants, which are “a vital tool for farmers and ranchers.”
Appropriators included language in the bill report directing the Natural Resources Conservation Service to brief lawmakers “on how producers can utilize NRCS programs to exclude wildlife from farmland.”
Win for energy resilience
The Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bill would provide $730 million to a Pentagon resilience program that supports investments often targeted by Republican lawmakers.
The funds would go to the Energy Resilience Conservation Investment Program, which funnels federal dollars toward projects on military installations that “improve energy resilience, contribute to mission assurance, save energy, and reduce [the Department of Defense’s] energy costs,” according to DOD.
The Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 guidance for the program lists microgrids, battery storage and “renewable and/or clean energy generation systems” as possible targets, as well as nuclear and geothermal energy.
However, it’s unclear whether the agency will continue to direct the funds toward those priorities. The program guidance references Biden-era executive orders directing emissions reductions across the federal government. Trump repealed those orders when he took office.
Environmental cleanups
The minibus contains hundreds of millions of dollars for environmental remediation to counteract pollution from harmful “forever chemicals” and a major fuel spill.
Negotiators included House-passed language providing $50 million for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, cleanups above the level the Trump administration requested for fiscal 2026. In all, PFAS remediation efforts would get more than $100 million.
Appropriators are also providing $53.7 billion in fiscal 2026 funding for the Toxic Exposures Fund, which supports veterans sickened by exposure to burn pits. That is more than double the amount provided in fiscal 2025, according to a bill summary.
In a statement, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the House’s top Democratic appropriator, lamented that the bill does not include advance funding for the exposure fund for fiscal 2027. She objected to the release of the spending legislation Sunday absent a broader funding deal with Republicans.
CR details
The continuing resolution attached to the minibus would fund the rest of the government until the end of January, reopening federal agencies and jumpstarting programs that have been partially shuttered for more than a month.
Appropriators included language that would reverse the layoffs the Trump administration implemented during the ongoing shutdown, requiring agencies to rehire affected employees and pay them for the time they would have worked. It would bar the administration from dismissing more workers through the duration of the CR.
The stopgap contains extensions for a host of programs that lapsed Sept. 30, including the Defense Production Act and the National Flood Insurance Program. A bipartisan duo in the House introduced a bill, H.R. 5848, that would backdate the authorization for the NFIP to Sept. 30 and extend its authorization through the end of 2026.
The CR also has a number of funding provisions requested by the White House to ensure certain federal programs do not lapse or run out of funds for the duration of the funding patch.
That includes an extension of funding for wildfire management and an extension of up to $54 million in funding under EPA’s state and tribal assistance grants to maintain certain infrastructure projects.
Lawmakers added language to increase by $2.6 million the statutory funding ceiling on the Bureau of Reclamation’s Calfed Bay-Delta program, which supports ecosystem restoration, water supply management and levee integrity.
