us senate funding bill – Artifex.News

U.S. Senate leaders reach funding deal to avoid shutdown during campaign season

admin — Mon, 03 Aug 2026 02:45:00 +0000

The bill generally funds the federal government at current levels through December 11. The House has passed a similar measure, but it did not include various exceptions sought by the White House. Senators have been spending recent days negotiating which of those exceptions to include.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Key senators unveiled a short-term spending bill on Sunday (August 2, 2026) that would keep federal agencies funded past the midterm elections and into early December as they look to avoid a government shutdown during the middle of campaign season.

The Senate is likely to vote on the measure before leaving Washington at week’s end for its traditional August recess, a period that many lawmakers want to spend shoring up their re-election prospects rather than working in the nation’s capital.

One exception that did not make it into the bill, Democrats noted, was the administration’s request to include $1 billion to build “Trump-class” battleships.

In another major difference with the House bill, Democrats say they also were able to include language that will ensure the administration cannot transfer funds from other programmes to the Border Patrol.

The late-summer action on a funding fix is unusual. Normally, Congress waits until the final days or hours of a funding deadline to pass short-term funding extensions, but this time, senators are acting two months before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said passing the measure was his top priority going into the August recess. He noted that the American people have already experienced two record-breaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months.

“We need to ensure that they do not face a third,” Mr. Thune said.

Both parties want to avoid another shutdown

A short-term funding extension is needed because Congress has struggled to get the dozen annual appropriations bills negotiated and approved before the September 30 deadline. By extending government funding now, lawmakers can use the ensuing months to work out their differences on full-year funding.

It will not be an easy lift as Republicans seek a dramatic increase in defence spending while cutting non-defence spending. Mr. Trump proposed a 10% cut in non-defence programmes overall. Meanwhile, he called for boosting defence spending by some 44%.

A potential shutdown before voters go to the polls is a scenario that both parties are looking to avoid, as polling indicated that neither party evaded blame for last fall’s record 43-day shutdown. Democrats sought to extend an expiring health insurance tax credit and refused to go along with a short-term spending bill that did not include that priority. But Republicans said that was a separate policy fight to be held at another time.

A second spending battle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security took 76 days to resolve when Democrats refused to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol without changes to those operations.

Bill delays controversial policy on grants

Sen. Susan Collins, the Republican chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, along with Democratic senators, are seeking to block a proposed rule from President Donald Trump’s administration related to grants. The rule would require a senior political appointee at each agency to review grant proposals through criteria that include “ensuring that discretionary awards advance the President’s policy priorities”.

Ms. Collins and Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said the rule would not take effect during the course of the stopgap spending bill. Ms. Collins said she advocated for significant changes to the rule, “citing its potential to politicise grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research”.

Democrats want to kill the administration’s effort altogether. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said it was a “disgraceful” effort that would “further politicise all federal grants”.

“While Republicans rejected killing the proposed rule outright, I am going to keep fighting to put a stop to it once and for all, and I will keep pressing my Republican colleagues to do exactly that,” Ms. Murray said.

Democrats fear Mr. Trump would turn federal grants into a cudgel to punish perceived political foes and reward allies, while also undermining Congress’s constitutional power of the purse. The White House Office of Management and Budget says its effort is about improving accountability to ensure taxpayer dollars are not wasted or misused.

Published – August 03, 2026 05:47 am IST

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US: Donald Trump-backed government funding deal passed by Senate, sending to House

admin — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 11:08:00 +0000

The Senate voted on Friday (January 30, 2026) to fund most of the government through the end of September while carving out a temporary extension for Homeland Security funding, giving Congress two weeks to debate new restrictions on federal immigration raids across the country.

With a weekend shutdown looming, President Donald Trump struck a spending deal with Senate Democrats on Thursday (January 29, 2026) in the wake of the deaths of two protesters at the hands of federal agents in Minneapolis. Democrats said they would not vote for the larger spending bill unless Congress considers legislation to unmask agents, require more warrants and allow local authorities to help investigate any incidents.

“The nation is reaching a breaking point,” Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said after the vote. “The American people are demanding that Congress step up and force change.”

As lawmakers in both parties called for investigations into the fatal shootings, Mr. Trump said he didn’t want a shutdown and negotiated the rare deal with Mr. Schumer, his frequent adversary. Mr. Trump then encouraged members of both parties to cast a “much needed Bipartisan YES vote.”

The bill passed 71-29 and will now head to the House, which is not due back until Monday (February 2, 2026). That means the government could be in a partial shutdown temporarily over the weekend until they pass it.

Speaker Mike Johnson, who held a conference call Friday (January 30, 2026) with GOP lawmakers, said he expects the House to vote Monday (February 2, 2026) evening. But what is uncertain is how much support there will be for the package.

Mr. Johnson’s right flank has signalled opposition to limits on Homeland Security funds, leaving him reliant on Democrats who have their own objections to funding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement without immediate restraints.

Two-week debate over ICE

It was unclear how involved Mr. Trump would be in the negotiations over new restrictions on immigration arrests — or if Republicans and Democrats could find any points of compromise.

Senate Democrats will not support an extension of Homeland Security funding in two weeks “unless it reins in ICE and ends violence,” Mr. Schumer said. “If our colleagues are not willing to enact real change, they should not expect Democratic votes.”

Similarly, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters that any change in the homeland bill needs to be “meaningful and it needs to be transformative.” Absent “dramatic change,” Mr. Jeffries said, “Republicans will get another shutdown.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the two sides will “sit down in good faith,” but it will be “really, really hard to get anything done,” especially in such a short amount of time.

“We’ll stay hopeful, but there are some pretty significant differences of opinion,” Mr. Thune said.

Democrats demand change

Irate Democrats have asked the White House to “end roving patrols” in cities and coordinate with local law enforcement on immigration arrests, including requiring tighter rules for warrants.

They also want an enforceable code of conduct so agents are held accountable when they violate rules. Mr. Schumer said agents should be required to have “masks off, body cameras on” and carry proper identification, as is common practice in most law enforcement agencies.

Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse, was killed by a border patrol agent on January 24, two weeks after protester Renee Good was killed by an ICE officer. Administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, originally said Pretti had aggressively approached officers, but multiple videos contradicted that claim.

Republican pushback

The President’s concessions to Democrats prompted pushback from some Senate Republicans, delaying the final votes and providing a preview of the coming debate over the next two weeks. In a fiery floor speech, Mr. Trump’s ally Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned that Republicans should not give away too much.

“To the Republican Party, where have you been?” Mr. Graham said, adding that ICE agents and Border Patrol agents have been “slandered and smeared.” Several Republicans have said that if Democrats are going to push for restrictions on ICE, they will push for restrictions on so-called “sanctuary cities” that they say do not do enough to enforce immigration.

“There’s no way in hell we’re going to let Democrats kneecap law enforcement and stop deportations in exchange for funding DHS,” said Missouri Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., ahead of the vote.

Still, some Republicans said they believe that changes to ICE’s operations were necessary, even as they were unlikely to agree to all of the Democrats’ requests.

“I think the last couple of days have been an improvement,” said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. “I think the rhetoric has been dialled down a little bit in Minnesota.”

Last-minute promises

After Mr. Trump announced the deal with Democrats, Mr. Graham held the spending bills up for almost a day until Mr. Thune agreed to give him a vote on his sanctuary cities bill at a later date.

Separately, Mr. Graham was also protesting a repeal of a new law giving senators the ability to sue the government for millions of dollars if their personal or office data is accessed without their knowledge — as happened to him and other senators as part of the so-called Arctic Frost investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by Trump supporters at the Capitol.

The spending bill, which was passed by the House last week, would repeal that law. But Mr. Graham said Mr. Thune had agreed to consider a separate bill that would allow “groups and private citizens” who were caught up in Jack Smith’s probe to sue.

Published – January 31, 2026 03:59 pm IST

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