The Senate advanced a bipartisan resolution to extend current government funding levels past the midterm elections, setting the stage for a showdown with the House in hopes to avoid another bitter shutdown fight this fall.
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Top appropriators unveiled the continuing resolution over the weekend punting the deadline until Dec. 11, one week longer than the version passed by the House last month.
The spending resolution includes additional funding provisions that are not included in the House version but fulfill specific requests from the Trump administration.
“This measure gives Congress the time we need to continue our work on bipartisan appropriations bills, which are always my strong preference for handling annual government funding,” Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who leads the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement. “I am grateful for the work of my colleagues; this CR is a major step toward averting a damaging shutdown that only harms vital programs and federal workers.”
The procedural hurdle on Monday paves the way for the Senate to hold a final vote on the spending resolution sometime this week before the Senate adjourns for its August recess.
The resolution comes after weeks of bipartisan negotiations between Collins and her Democratic counterpart, Washington Sen. Patty Murray, to draft a proposal that could overcome the 60-vote filibuster in the Senate.
The spending bill comes roughly two months before the fiscal year deadline on Oct. 1, a rare proactive move as Congress typically works to complete a deal in the days, or sometimes hours, before.
But lawmakers want to remove the possibility of a shutdown before the November elections, hoping to avoid a partisan fight as Congress leaves town to campaign.
“There’s been enough uncertainty this last year,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told reporters on Monday. “I think it’s better for everybody if there’s predictability, certainty, and just to take that issue off the table as something that demonstrates to the American people that we’re serious about the job they sent us here to do.”
Democrats notch spending wins in bipartisan CR
Democrats managed to secure a number of wins in the legislative vehicle that the House version does not include while still including key proposals from the White House.
The Senate version contains multiple anomaly requests, referring to specific programs the Trump administration wants to have additional spending during the two-month extension period. Those include funding for food assistance, disaster relief, assistance for the FBI to prepare for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, grants for rental and homelessness assistance, and more.
Democrats were able to include guardrail language preventing the Trump administration from transferring money to Border Patrol beyond what was already approved in Republicans’ budget resolution earlier this year. That provision was not included in the House version despite Democratic demands.
Democrats also secured language issuing a freeze on the Office of Management and Budget’s proposed rule that would require federal grants to be approved by senior political appointees. Democrats rejected that proposal earlier this summer, raising concerns it would lead to the administration terminating grants for blue states that the White House disagrees with.
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The resolution only freezes the OMB rule through the Dec. 11 timeline. However, it was an agreement that garnered bipartisan support.
“I am also pleased that this bipartisan agreement prevents the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s proposed rule regarding federal financial assistance from taking effect,” Collins said in her statement. “I advocated for significant changes to the proposed rule in a July 6 letter to the agency, citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research.”
The extension also includes language to avoid a lapse in funding for highway, rail and transit systems ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline. Proposals for a full reauthorization has since been stalled in the House and Senate.
Still, there were some provisions Democrats wanted in the CR that were rejected, including a provision to prevent the OMB from issuing pocket rescissions, a rarely used and legally questionable procedure that allows the president to cancel government funding without congressional approval.
The Trump administration utilized that tool last summer when it canceled nearly $5 billion in foreign aid, prompting pushback from Democrats.
Appropriators say they still want to do their jobs
After the Senate approves the spending resolution, it heads to the House where it will need approval to go to President Donald Trump’s desk.
The top House Democrat on the Appropriations Committee lauded the bill as “a clear improvement over the House Republican continuing resolution,” but remained adamant appropriators continue their work.
“We are still nearly two months away from the end of the fiscal year and should be working together to pass full-year funding bills that lower the cost of living, rein in the corruption at the highest levels of the government, and can earn the support of Democrats and Republicans in the House and in the Senate,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
The resolution extends government funding to avoid a shutdown in the fall, but appropriators are urging the House and Senate not to lose momentum on the spending bills. The annual appropriations process handles discretionary government spending, which is divided between 12 bills covering federal departments and agencies.
The deadline for that spending is Oct. 1, the start date of the fiscal year. However, Congress has not met that deadline for all 12 appropriations bills since 1996.
As of Monday, the House has only passed three of the appropriations bills so far, although the remaining nine have advanced through their respective committees and await a final vote. None have been passed in the Senate or approved by individual committees.