Congressional appropriators’ latest bipartisan spending package, unveiled Monday, would reduce funding for a host of energy and environment programs while rejecting the Trump administration’s requests for even greater cuts.
The House and Senate are set to take up the compromise three-bill “minibus” this month with hopes of providing updated funding levels for the Department of Energy, the Interior Department, EPA and a number of science agencies for the first time in nearly two years.
The release of the fiscal 2026 measures — Energy-Water, Interior-Environment and Commerce-Justice-Science — marks significant progress for appropriators, who have struggled to coalesce on a strategy to fund the government after passing an initial batch of three funding bills late last year.
Congress’ funding deadline of Jan. 30 is four weeks away, and the bipartisan, bicameral agreement on three more bills provides badly needed momentum as lawmakers try to avoid another costly government shutdown.
“President Trump set an important foundation by signing three appropriations bills into law in November, and we are carrying that momentum into the new year,” said House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) in a statement.
“Developed through committee-led negotiations and thoughtful deliberation,” Cole added, “this package demonstrates how an accountable process produces strong policy.”
Indeed, the negotiated minibus contains provisions supported by leaders on both sides of the aisle and funding levels that reflect a compromise between the severe cuts that Republicans proposed and the boosts that Democrats were aiming for. In general, the package would cut spending relative to a continuation of Biden-era spending levels.
Negotiators left out so-called poison-pill policy riders that would have undermined bipartisan support, including a proposal about federal lands favored by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah).
Still, the GOP majority secured a number of conservative wins. Beyond cuts to EPA and the Department of the Interior overall, the package proposes to eliminate DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and defund the Office of Energy Justice and Equity.
Some bipartisan priorities were left on the cutting room floor, and appropriators sought a middle ground on others, such as an effort to create a new, consolidated wildland firefighting agency.
“There’ll always be hurdles, and it’s not a perfect bill, but I’m proud of it,” said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), chair of the Senate Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee.
Appropriators mostly defy Trump
Appropriators sprinkled cuts to some energy and environment programs throughout the spending package but avoided the much steeper reductions to Democratic-favored initiatives that the Trump administration proposed last year.
A number of energy and environment programs would maintain their current funding levels under the legislation.
EPA is facing a $320 million, or 4 percent, cut to its top-line budget — a much smaller slash than the more than $4 billion reduction President Donald Trump requested.
DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would face a cut much smaller than the one proposed by Republicans. Democrats said the bill rejects Trump’s proposal to “zero out funding for critical solar, wind, and hydrogen research programs.”
“It’s no secret that reduction in spending came primarily from nondefense, and more specifically, the Green New Deal provisions under President [Joe] Biden,” Kennedy said in a brief interview, adding that nondefense spending in the Energy-Water bill would decrease by more than 3 percent.
“President Biden spent an enormous amount of money — enormous amount of money — on the Green New Deal, and it’s time we spent money on things we need more right now, like nuclear,” Kennedy added. Republicans often use “Green New Deal” to refer to renewable energy and climate programs.
The Energy-Water bill would boost funding for advanced nuclear energy development, as well as for nuclear weapons programs.
At the Department of Energy, negotiators are proposing to eliminate the Biden-era Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations and to zero out funding for the Office of Energy Justice and Equity, as DOE proposed in a reorganization last year.
Appropriators rebuffed the White House’s bid to zero out funding for the popular Diesel Emissions Reduction Act grant program, which would get the same amount of money as last year. The Targeted Airshed Grant Program would also be level-funded.
The Interior Department overall would get about $14.5 billion, a cut of more than $200 million, with some of those cuts coming from renewable energy programs. Oil, gas and mineral production programs would see increases.
The Bureau of Land Management would get $1.34 billion, which is slightly less than Biden-era funding levels but hundreds of millions of dollars more than Trump proposed. The legislation proposes increases for oil production programs at both BLM and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
For the Forest Service, appropriators proposed $8.61 billion in discretionary spending and rejected the Trump administration’s proposed cuts to state forestry grant programs and research.
The National Park Service would be spared a 37 percent cut requested by the White House. Appropriators would instead give the public land agency $3.27 billion, a moderate drop from the current level.
Funding for the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality would stay about equal at $4.6 million.
Policy riders
Democrats and Republicans on Monday touted a lack of “poison-pill” policy riders in the spending package, which could have further complicated final passage.
“Despite their efforts to include over 140 hyper-partisan line items that would have weakened gun safety regulations, expanded oil and gas leasing on federal land, diminished investments in renewable energy, and imposed cruel culture-war constraints on LGBTQ+ Americans, none of these provisions were ultimately included,” House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) said in a statement. “Democrats successfully defeated every single one.”
Still, lawmakers added a number of riders on oil reserves, endangered species, public lands and myriad other energy and environment issues.
Appropriators included language to the Interior-Environment bill report asserting that the Interior Department “shall maintain ownership of Federal lands” that are designated as national parks, among other categorizations.
Lee filed an amendment to the Senate’s version of the Interior-Environment bill last month that would have struck that language, angering conservation advocates who accused Lee of trying to sell public lands.
The package contains language to prevent the sage grouse from being listed as an endangered species and to exempt farmers and ranchers from certain greenhouse gas reporting requirements.
The bill does not extend a prohibition on staffing reductions at the Interior Department, which had been included in the stopgap funding bill that Congress passed in November.
Still, the package requires agencies such as the National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management to “maintain staffing levels in order to fulfill the mission required.”
The Energy-Water title would prohibit DOE from providing financial assistance to any foreign entity of concern. It would also bar the agency from selling crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the Chinese government.
Consolidated wildfire agency
Appropriators denied a bipartisan push to establish a new, consolidated wildland fire agency at the Interior Department by moving fire services out of the Agriculture Department’s Forest Service.
Instead, lawmakers ordered the Interior and Agriculture secretaries to hire a nonpartisan research organization to do a feasibility study of a new fire agency, assessing the potential impacts of consolidating fire responsibilities and how a new agency would differ from the National Interagency Fire Center, which already coordinates fire response on public lands.
The agencies are also required to submit funding estimates and staffing plans for a new agency to appropriators.
The Forest Service’s wildfire management programs stand to get $2.4 billion in discretionary funding, plus a $2.48 billion budget cap adjustment for disaster-related spending. Non-fire-related accounts would get $3.71 billion.
Water projects protected
The bipartisan agreement shores up funding for the Army Corps of Engineers after a year in which Congress did not approve any earmarks for water infrastructure projects.
Without new congressional direction for water projects, the Trump administration unilaterally canceled or froze funding for numerous Army Corps projects, almost entirely in Democratic-led states.
Under the new spending package, the Army Corps would get $10.4 billion, an increase of nearly $2 billion relative to the fiscal 2025 levels. The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund would receive an estimated $3.5 billion, an increase of $702 million, according to a bill summary.
“We increased the budget for the Corps of Engineers by 19 percent, and I think my Senate colleagues — and presumably my House colleagues — are gonna be very excited about that,” Kennedy said.
Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Kennedy’s counterpart on the Energy-Water Subcommittee, cast the minibus’ Army Corps funding as an opportunity to ensure the Trump administration spends funds on projects as Congress intends.
“Passing these bills will help ensure that Congress, not President Trump and [White House budget chief] Russ Vought, decides how taxpayer dollars are spent — by once again providing hundreds of detailed spending directives and reasserting congressional control over these incredibly important spending decisions,” Murray said in a statement.
The Bureau of Reclamation would get $1.65 billion, a reduction of about 11 percent. The Bureau’s WaterSMART program would get an increase of $354 million relative to its current level.
EPA’s state revolving funds would receive $2.76 billion, roughly $2.46 billion more than the amount requested by the White House.
About $1.6 billion of that amount would support congressionally earmarked water and wastewater projects. The Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act program would get $72.3 million, the same as it received in fiscal 2025.
Science, climate programs survive
While Colorado’s National Center for Atmospheric Research would not be explicitly protected from the administration’s attacks, most science and climate research programs would be spared the White House’s proposed reductions.
“Our bill makes clear that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, will not accept this Administration’s reckless, harmful cuts,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), ranking member on the Senate’s CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, said in a statement.
The Commerce-Justice-Science bill would provide about $6.2 billion for NOAA — more than Republicans proposed — and would increase funding for the National Weather Service, including a $10 million boost to support staffing at weather forecast offices.
The legislation exceeds the White House’s request for NOAA weather and climate satellites by $135 million, according to Van Hollen’s office.
The National Science Foundation would get about $8.8 billion, maintaining fiscal 2025 funding levels for a range of research activities. House Republicans had floated deep cuts to NSF.
NASA would receive $24.4 billion, including support for the Artemis program and the agency’s “STEM” education initiatives.
The legislation would block a DOE move last year to cap indirect costs for research and demonstration grants. It would also block some of DOE’s reorganizations plans.
DOE’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy would get $350 million , a reduction of $110 million relative to the fiscal 2025 level.
Appropriations outlook, Colorado holds
The funding package appears likely to clear the House and Senate and become law before the end of the month, but the road to final passage will be bumpy.
The House is expected to vote on the minibus as soon as Thursday. But first, it will have to go through the Rules Committee on Tuesday, where conservatives may protest some of the funding levels or argue that the legislation does not go far enough in advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda.
If the package passes the House, it will head to the Senate, where Colorado’s Democratic senators have already placed holds on he legislation because it does not address the Trump administration’s decision last month to “dismantle” the National Center for Atmospheric Research in their home state.
“We’re going to consider all our options,” Sen. Michael Bennet said Monday. “I wish the language were in there. There’s a broad, I think, bipartisan view that NCAR does incredibly important work for this country, and I still hope we’ll find a way to fund it.”
A spokesperson for Sen. John Hickenlooper confirmed that the senator is prepared to block progress on the package due to similar concerns.
The minibus could also face opposition from conservative senators who have previously protested the billions of dollars in funding earmarked for projects in lawmakers’ home states and districts.
The potential opposition means it could take a couple of weeks for Senate leaders to strike an agreement to vote on the measure, pinning a final vote on the package up against the funding deadline.
Appropriators have discussed the possibility of pairing the minibus with another funding stopgap bill to prevent a shutdown after Jan. 30 and buy more time to pass the remaining six fiscal 2026 spending bills, which are considered even more contentious.
The remaining bills would fund programs related to disaster relief; forever chemical contamination and remediation; environment-related health issues; energy bill assistance for low-income households; and military energy and climate resilience.
Reporters Ellie Borst, Michael Doyle, Marc Heller, Sean Reilly, Heather Richards, Scott Streater, Miranda Willson and Jennifer Yachnin contributed.
