House and Senate lawmakers will spend some of their August break trying to find compromise on spending bills after the upper chamber approved its first batch of fiscal 2026 legislation Friday evening.
The monthlong recess presents a critical opportunity for lawmakers to reach consensus on spending levels and make a dent in an appropriations process that so far has been even more acrimonious than last year’s. Lawmakers are eager to avoid a government shutdown after Sept. 30.
“I’m hopeful that we can make the kind of progress that we want to see [and] use the August … work period to talk with our House counterparts to do some conferencing and get these bills signed into law before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1,” said Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine).
“That’s the way the system should work,” Collins said Friday.
