Copyright Salt Lake City Deseret News
WASHINGTON — Senate appropriators released the text of their three-bill spending package to fund a slew of federal agencies for the remainder of the 2026 fiscal year as part of efforts to reopen the government and end the 40-day shutdown. The three-bill framework, known as a minibus package among senators, includes funding for the legislative branch, the Agriculture Department, and the bill for veterans’ programs and military facilities. Those bills will be attached to a larger bill to temporarily fund the entire government until Jan. 30, which could be voted on as early as this week. The text was released on Sunday afternoon after weeks of negotiations between both parties in the House and Senate. The framework received support from three of the four top appropriators in Congress, including Democratic Sen. Patty Murray. Her House counterpart, Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., is the only one who rejected its contents. Here’s a look at what’s inside the three-piece appropriations bill. Agriculture Department The agriculture appropriations bill lays out the spending used to fund farm programs, food assistance such as SNAP, the Food and Drug Administration, and other rural development priorities. The framework includes $8.2 billion for the Women, Infants, and Children program, a program under the USDA that provides food assistance and nutrition education to low-income women with children under 5 years old. That’s a $603 million increase from last fiscal year. The bill allocates $460 million toward the Commodity Supplemental Food Program, which provides low-income adults over 60 years old with nutritious foods provided by the USDA. It also fully funds the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which has experienced some lapses in funding during the shutdown that has left millions of families at risk. The FDA will receive $6.9 billion in funding, which includes $9 million toward cosmetics regulation; $2.5 million for diabetes research; $2 million for the Tobacco Task Force; and $116 million for the State and Local Food Inspections Program. The bill carves out $1.7 billion for rental assistance to support families in rural areas with accessing safe and affordable housing. That’s a $73 million increase over last year. The legislation also includes language to prohibit the unregulated sale of “intoxicating hemp-based or hemp-derived products” from being sold online, in gas stations, or in corner stores. However, it preserves the sale for “non-intoxicating CBD and industrial hemp products.” Legislative branch The second part of the three-tiered spending package is language to fund Congress and related offices on Capitol Hill. Offices included in that spending include the House and Senate, Capitol Police, the Library of Congress, the Government Accountability Office, the Copyright Office, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Architect of the Capitol, among others. Capitol Police will receive $852 million for the fiscal year, a $46 million increase from the year before. That money includes resources to recruit and retain officers. The bill also allocates $203.5 million in new funding for member security, a major request from earlier this year among an uptick in threats toward lawmakers — especially after the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in September. The Congressional Budget Office, which provides analyses to lawmakers on how much certain pieces of legislation will cost, will receive $74.8 million. The Congressional Research Service, which handles the legal and policy analyses, will receive $136 million. The bill provides $1.5 billion in funding for the Senate and another $2 billion for House operations. The framework also includes language to prevent any scheduled pay raises for lawmakers, a freeze that has been in place since 2009. Military and Veterans Affairs The final piece of the minibus package is the funding bill for the Department of Veterans Affairs and other related agencies. The bill would provide $115 billion in discretionary funding for VA medical care, a $2.3 billion increase from fiscal year 2025. It would also include $49.8 billion in mandatory funding into the Cost of War Toxic Exposures Fund, a program that provides healthcare benefits and medical research for veterans who are exposed to toxic substances such as burn pits during their time of service. Part of the medical care funding includes $342 million for access to rural healthcare; $3.5 billion toward housing assistance for veterans experiencing housing insecurity; $18.9 billion toward mental health resources; and $27.5 million for child care support, among other things. The bill carves out $263.7 billion for mandatory veterans benefits, which includes disability compensation programs, education benefits, and rehabilitation training.
