The 119th Congress’ 2026 session is getting off to a productive start, and it’s only been a week into the New Year. While the newsy items surrounding the extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies have taken up much of the oxygen, Congress has done some heavy lifting and good work through the passage of three minibus appropriations bills. Should these pass the Senate with the same bipartisan support as they did in the House, it could potentially head off a 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.
Thanks to the overwhelming stench of Minnesota Somali fraud, moderate Democrats aligned with fiscal conservatives to strip an earmark for Democrat Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) that was slated for — you guessed it — a Somali-led organization, along with funding for a community project. They also were also smart about making the bills streamlined. Because a Justice and Commerce bill was presented as a standalone, lawmakers were more inclined to cast their vote in favor, because they could lodge their objections individually.
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 is in the zone and, it appears, pushing forward the Trump agenda. So much so that they did not vote to override President Trump’s vetoes of Congressional Bill H.R. 131, which would have continued the construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) water pipeline, and Congressional Bill H.R. 504, which would have required the Secretary of the Interior to appropriate and safeguard a portion of Miccosukee tribal land in the Florida Everglades.
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.
Dive Deeper: This Is How It’s Done: Trump Vetoes Decades-Old Legislation That Furthered Waste
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, as RedState’s Becca Lower reported.
As Fox News’ Chad Pergram reported, the vote was expected to pass on a bipartisan basis; The “coalition of lawmakers went around the Speaker to put this bill on the floor. The expired subsidies were central to the government shutdown.”
Now it heads over to the U.S. Senate, where its fate is uncertain at this hour; it rejected a similar bill in December, readers might recall. The upper chamber’s bipartisan group has differences already in their proposed bill, including the number of years it would cover, among other provisions.
Senator Bernie Moreno (R-OH) has pretty much said the House wasted its time with this bipartisan end-run around the Speaker of the House. One of the major sticking points of this extension is that it includes the removal of the Hyde Amendment to allow federal funding for abortions.
“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 also a non-starter because Senate Republicans have their own agenda in the works for a revamped health care plan. At least this time around, they actually have one at the ready.
Editor’s Note: The mainstream media continues to deflect, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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