The US Capitol in Washington, DC, on October 1, 2025, at the start of a historic government shutdown. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
WASHINGTON – Republicans and Democrats in Congress are cautiously sanguine that they can pass remaining government funding bills before the end-of-month deadline to avoid another shutdown.
The milestone would be an achievement for the normally deadlocked Congress, although it comes months after lawmakers’ original October deadline and the longest lockdown in history that reverberated across the country.
Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, said negotiators recently made “progress” toward agreement on the unresolved bills, which include funding for the departments of Defense, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security.
These three bills are the most complicated to resolve and this year will be no exception given President Donald Trump’s actions on immigration, deportation and military intervention in Venezuela.
Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray, the committee’s ranking member, was slightly less sanguine than her colleague about the likelihood of all the bills becoming law. But she didn’t rule it out.
“It’s up to the Republican leadership,” Murray said. “We are working hard to achieve our goal.”
The House of Representatives approves some spending
Congress approved three of the dozen annual spending bills in the package that ended the shutdown in November and provided funding for their own offices and operations; military construction projects; the Ministry of Agriculture; and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The package included emergency spending for the remaining federal programs in the other nine bills.
The house voted 397 to 28 On Thursday, spending bills for energy, water, commerce, justice, science and home affairs and the environment will be passed and sent to the Senate, where Collins expects that chamber to take a procedural vote on Monday.
Collins said the remaining six unresolved bills would likely move through Congress in two separate packages – one to fund financial services, homeland security, the State Department and foreign operations, and another to fund defense, education, health care, housing and transportation programs.
If Congress completes work on the entire bill, which is expected to total about $1.8 trillion in spending, it would mark the end of the first annual appropriations process of Trump’s second term.
Minnesota ICE shooting rocks trial
The biggest hurdle in finalizing any bill will be reaching consensus on funding for the Department of Homeland Security, especially afterward An immigration officer shot and killed a woman in Minnesota.
Collins said a day after the Jan. 7 incident that members of both political parties in both chambers were continuing to work on the bill and praised subcommittee Chairwoman Katie Britt of Alabama for “doing a really good job.”
But Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, ranking member of the subcommittee, said there must be “constraints” on how immigration officials operate.
Murphy said the surge in hiring at Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection was fueled by billions of dollars additional support included in the Republicans’ huge, attractive bill “has likely resulted in people on our streets who don’t have the necessary training.”
“I’m not saying this was part of yesterday’s history, but we know they’re not using the same standards and the same training as they did in the past,” Murphy said. “There is a larger question as to whether CBP is even qualified to operate inland. It is my understanding that CBP was involved in the operation yesterday that resulted in the murder of this young woman.”
Murphy said he had a “handful of ideas” about how to address his and other Democrats’ concerns about the way the Trump administration has approached immigration enforcement, but acknowledged that any final deal would need Republican support to get through Congress.
“I’m not going to beg for God’s sake. We’re not going to solve all of these problems. And I’m not seeking comprehensive immigration reform at all,” Murphy said. “But some targeted improvements in the way ICE and CBP operate will, I think, be necessary.”
Murphy said he believes it is time to craft a bipartisan solution to this spending bill before the Jan. 30 deadline.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said during a news conference that leaders of the Appropriations Committee and subcommittee had an “important and serious discussion” about the funding bill after the shooting.
Congress could pass an emergency budget proposal for programs within the Department of Homeland Security, which includes the Federal Emergency Management Agency, to keep things running for the rest of the fiscal year. The fallback option can be used if consensus on a bill for the entire year is not possible.
This type of funding bill, known as a continuing resolution, would leave DHS funding largely unchanged and avoid a shutdown of DHS after the current funding bill expires at the end of the month. The type of policies DHS has used throughout the year would be maintained.
The negotiations continue
Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., ranking member of the House Budget Committee, said Wednesday’s talks on the unsettled bills were “going well” and that she expects lawmakers to meet their Jan. 30 deadline.
House Speaker Tom Cole, R-Okla., said his “goal” is to approve the remaining bills before the end of the month to avoid having Congress take another stopgap measure to keep the government running or face a shutdown.
While the groupings outlined by Collins may seem random, Cole said appropriators have spent a lot of time thinking about how to package the remaining bills.
“There was a lot of thought put into how these things work together and what would maximize support on both sides,” Cole said. “Obviously these discussions took place not just among Republicans, but also among our colleagues across the aisle and across the room. So we believe this is the best package to move forward.”
Congress rarely approves final versions of government funding bills individually and previously approved all 12 in an omnibus package, although Republican opposition to this has led to smaller “minibuses.”
Cole said negotiations between Republicans and Democrats on final versions of the full-year budget legislation would be led by subcommittee heads.
“If you can resolve these issues at the subcommittee level, you have the most knowledgeable people on both sides of the aisle, the people who care the most,” Cole said. “The higher up the food chain it goes – be it to my colleagues in the four corners (of the budget committee) or to leadership – the more political decisions are made and the less knowledge the people making the decisions have about the issue.”
Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin, the top Democrat on the Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Subcommittee, said “great progress” has been made so far toward final agreement on this bill.
“Given the work we’ve done so far, I’m very confident and encouraged that we can get this done,” Baldwin said.
Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy questioned his colleagues’ ability to reach consensus on the final six bills and said it would be “difficult” to reach final agreements in the remaining time.
“I wouldn’t bet my house on it,” Kennedy said. “And if I were to bet your house, it would only be a maybe.”
Kennedy said he was not involved in the negotiations on those bills but assumed negotiators were “fighting over something.” Kennedy is chairman of the Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee, which has already completed work on his bill.
Ariana Figueroa contributed to this report.
