The House approved the last spending package to avoid another government shutdown
In this case, the appropriations package funds the following areas of government: defense, transportation, housing and urban development, health and human services, labor, education and other related agencies. In total, they amount to $1.2 trillion in spending.
Mike Johnson on Capitol Hill/ Saul Loeb.
The House of Representatives passed the final spending packages to avoid a new government shutdown. After weeks of negotiations with Democrats and many Republicans, Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, managed to pass the latest appropriations with 341 votes in favor and 88 against.
In this case, the appropriations package funds the following areas of government: defense, transportation, housing and urban development, health and human services, labor, education and other related agencies. In total, they amount to $1.2 trillion in spending.
One of the most piquant points of the debate was funding for Homeland Security. Precisely, it was the one that had the closest vote: 220 to 207. Specifically, this bill maintains spending for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the previous year's level and allocates $20 million for the purchase and operation of body cameras for ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents. It also restricts the ability of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to allocate federal funds on a discretionary basis.
"The legislation before us is part of the final chapter of the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process. This is where months of work turn into results. You see, we aren't here for another stopgap or temporary fix. We are here to finish the job by providing full-year funding and closing out all twelve bills with certainty and direction...These bills were written with those priorities in mind," House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole said.
"Our Defense bill sends a clear message – America's military will remain the strongest in the world," the Oklahoma Republican added.
As for Congress' next steps to avoid the upcoming Jan. 30 government shutdown, the House will combine the four bills with two packages that passed last week and send the complete package to the Senate. Congress is expected to tackle the final details over the next week.
How is the government funded?
These bills authorize and allocate funds to federal agencies for the new fiscal year, which begins October 1. If these laws are not passed on time, the government runs out of legal funds to spend, and part of the public administration must shut down, as already happened last November.
In this context, instead of approving these 12 packages one by one, legislators opted to combine some or all of them into a single bill. This "mega-package" is called an "omnibus." Instead, this agreement includes approval of a "minibus," consisting of only two, three, or four of these appropriations. This "minibus" contains three of the twelve areas to be funded.
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