One week into the new year, the 119th Congress is already doing what Washington too often fails to do: governing. While much of the media attention has fixated on the extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, lawmakers have quietly delivered something far more consequential — the passage of three minibus appropriations bills.
That’s not glamorous, but it’s real work. And if the Senate advances these bills with the same bipartisan margins seen in the House, Congress may actually succeed in averting yet another government shutdown:
The House on Thursday passed three appropriations bills with broad bipartisan support, moving lawmakers closer to avoiding an end-of-month shutdown.
The bills would fund the Department of Justice, Department of Commerce, key science agencies and other related entities; the Department of Energy and water development; and the Department of Interior, Environmental Protection Agency and other related agencies.
The vote tally on the final passage of the package was 397-28, and it now will head to the Senate.
“This bipartisan, bicameral package reflects steady progress toward completing FY26 funding responsibly. It invests in priorities crucial to the American people: making our communities safer, supporting affordable and reliable energy, and responsibly managing vital resources,” House Appropriations Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) previously said in a statement.
Amid the lingering stench of Minnesota’s Somali fraud scandals, even moderate Democrats finally found common ground with fiscal conservatives — and the first casualty was an earmark for Rep. Ilhan Omar (D–MN). The funding, earmarked for a Somali-led organization along with a separate community project, was stripped from the bill, a rare but welcome nod to accountability.
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Just as important, lawmakers showed some overdue discipline in how they structured the legislation. By breaking out the Justice and Commerce funding into a standalone bill, leadership removed the usual excuse-making. Members could vote yes on core government functions while opposing specific provisions they didn’t support:
So far, Congress has passed three out of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government. If these three bills pass the Senate and are signed by President Trump, lawmakers will still need to pass six more appropriations bills by the end of January.
Congress looks locked in — and unmistakably aligned with the Trump agenda. That resolve was on full display when lawmakers declined to override vetoes issued by Donald Trump, choosing discipline over feel-good spending and symbolic legislating.
Members rejected efforts to revive H.R. 131, which would have continued construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit water pipeline, and H.R. 504, which sought to force the Interior Department to acquire and protect land tied to the Miccosukee Tribe in the Florida Everglades. Rather than rubber-stamp Congress’s worst habit — overriding vetoes to keep pet projects alive — lawmakers backed the president’s insistence on restraint:
The House on Thursday failed to override President Trump’s vetoes of two previously uncontroversial bills concerning a Colorado water project and expanding lands of a tribe in Florida.
The move showcases House Republicans’ loyalty to the president and support for his political battles, as the vetoes had been seen as instances of Trump acting on political grudges.
But in their zeal to kick health care funding down the road (or allow the Senate to tank it), 17 House Republicans voted with Democrats to extend the expired Affordable Care Act subsidies for another three years – which, by the way, is just in time for the next presidential election.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) didn’t mince words, effectively arguing that the House wasted its time with a so-called bipartisan maneuver designed to sidestep the Speaker and force the issue forward.
At the heart of the dispute is a provision that should be a nonstarter for conservatives: stripping out the Hyde Amendment and opening the door to federal funding for abortion. “We don’t do federal funding for abortions,” Moreno said. “That’s a long-standing tradition, nobody’s looking to change that.”
The House extension is a nonstarter for another reason: Senate Republicans aren’t taking their cues from the lower chamber this time. They’re moving forward with their own revamped health care agenda — and, for once, they actually have a plan ready to go.
