The Senate passed its first tranche of the state financing laws for the 2026 financial year on Friday before its coming August break. However, the congress is on a potentially cluttered struggle for switching off when returning in September.
The chamber approved three legislative templates, which for the departments of the veteran matters (VA) and agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the military construction, the legislative industry and rural development more than 180 billion US dollars for the departments of the Veterans Affairs (VA) and agriculture, agriculture, Food and Drug Administration were provided.
The invoices were adopted in two parts: with an 87-9 vote for military construction, VA, Agriculture and FDA financing; And an 81-15 votes for the financing of the legislative.
The votes coincide days of uncertainty as to whether the Senate with one of the 12 annual financing calculations from the chamber from the chamber from the chamber from the chamber.
Senator John Boozman (R-Mark), who heads the subcommittee that created the VA Financing Act for the full year, said on Friday that he sees the first border as a “test run”.
“It was only so long ago that we did our middle invoices. Many people are currently [forgot] The procedures, ”he told the Hill and noticed that senators“ really did not make any bills ”in the previous congress seats.
The adults say that the vote marked for the first time since 2018 that the Senate passed the financing laws before the August break.
“It is really a question again, and the more we do it, the easier it will be, the easier it will be when we go back,” said Boozman.
Last week, the senators had gone through several iterations of their first financing package of the year when the leaders on both sides in their ranks about the proposed output levels and actions of the Trump government, which inflamed Democrats, worked through frustrations.
Far more than half of the funds approved on Friday are located in the annual VA and Military Construction Bill, which is available for the financing of more than 153 billion US dollars for the financing of around $ 133 billion for the VA and around $ 20 billion for the military construction of the Ministry of Defense. More than 113 billion US dollars under discretionary funds would be used for medical VA supply.
The annual agricultural financing plan calls for 27 billion US dollars in discretionary financing for the 2026 financial year. It comprises 8.2 billion US dollars for the special additional nutritional program for women, infants and children (WIC), about 7 billion US dollars for the financing of food and drug management, diamond and inspection care.
The Democrats also emphasized $ 240 million for the financing of the legislative template for the McGovern-Dole-Food for Education program, which aimed at President Trump’s latest budget request.
The annual financial plan of the legislative industry calls for around 7 billion US dollars for house and senate operations, the US Capitol police and agencies such as the Library of Congress (LOC), the state accountability, the Congression Research Service (CRS), the Congression (CBO) and the architects of Capitols.
The Capitol police would see a thrust as part of the plan together with the CBO, while the financing of the LOC, CRS and the GAO are kept at the 2025 financial year. The legislator also approved 44.5 million US dollars to emergency funds that aimed to improve security and membership protection Early this year.
The Republicans were not sure beforehand whether the third draft law would be passed this week as part of the package until Senator John Kennedy (R-La.), A high-ranking acquisition, had been worked out so that he could correct the measure separately from the other law. Kennedy has criticized the Finance Act for the proposed editions for the legislative branch.
“It just doesn’t seem appropriate for us to spend so much, while everyone else has to take a cut,” he said reporter at the end of July. “Now some of my colleagues point this out, yes, but the additional expenses are for the security of members.”
“If you want to spend additional money for the security of members, you will find a payment within the invoice. I only think that the look is terrible and the guideline is terrible,” he said. “We should adhere to the same standard that we all hold, and that’s why I’m going to vote no.”
The Republicans also accuse Senator Chris van Hollen (D-Md.) Against the Trump government’s moving plans for the FBI headquarters in order to weigh the efforts to adopt the annual Finance Act for the Ministry of Justice.
The senators had initially expected that Bill, which also finances the trade department and the scientific agencies, should be part of the package until these plans fell apart at the beginning of this week, since the plans of the administration of Trump move the FBI headquarters.
Van Hollen, the top democrat of the subcommittee, who had drawn up the annual financing contract, said that on Thursday he spoke from the Senate from the Senate that he had pushed for a change that aimed to ensure that the FBI “had a level 5 security headquarters”.
He found his previous attempt during the examination of the committee that a change from the DoJ Financing Act was temporarily passed, with which President Trump’s plans, the FBI headquarters in Washington, was to be blocked, but was later scrapped after the convinced GOP opposition threatened to restrict the bill.
“It did not happen because members of the Senate appropriation committee, Republicans and Democrats were not of the opinion [of the FBI] You have a level 5 security headquarters, “he said.
Van Hollen said he hoped that the invoice could “get back on the track in September”. Senator Jerry Moran (R-Kansas), chairman of the subcommittee alongside Van Hollen, offered a rather gloomy view for the next steps of Bill after the break. He argued that a immense part of the focus in September would likely be on getting a deal with a financing stops, which is also referred to as an ongoing resolution (CR) to keep the government beyond the closure period on September 30th.
“If we return from the break, we will move to the CR to get ourselves to get ourselves to see if the CJS has a way, it is probably only the CR and will be continued,” said Moran. “The entire work we have done goes away, and we will return to CR and finance these agencies at the same level and the same way as we did last year.”
“Every time we say we want to carry out appropriation calculations, then there is someone who has a reason that” not this time “,” not this “,” not “because I didn’t understand what I want,” he said. “And this time we are arguing about an amendment that was allowed to the senator who raised objections, but he wanted him to achieve the result that he wants.”
“And he did not win in the committee and he would not win in the Senate, but he could not think, I would not think, but he can do his case. But he rejected this option,” he said.
