During the week of May 12, the House passed its first bill of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2027 cycle, advanced a second bill through full committee, and held cabinet-level budget hearings. The Senate held FY 2027 budget hearings as well. The week of May 19 was the last session week before the Memorial Day recess, and it was largely a rinse-and-repeat week during this busy appropriations time of year.
Key Highlights
- MilCon-VA passed the House on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis, likely the only bill to do so this cycle.
- Senate appropriators are grappling with large prospective cuts to key non-defense priorities while the President’s defense budget request reaches historic heights.
- Continuing Resolutions into the fall, and perhaps next Congress, are likely before a completed cycle of final FY 2027 bills.
House Floor: MilCon-VA Passes Overwhelmingly
The House passed its first FY 2027 Appropriations bill on May 15 in a 400-15 vote. In 2026, it’s rare to see a post office naming clear by such a margin, but the strong response reflects the traditionally bipartisan nature of veterans and military construction funding, especially in an election year. The small group that voted against the bill cited concerns about policy riders, which are perennial issues for these members.
The bill provides more than $157 billion, $4 billion above FY 2026, and authorizes $323.9 billion in mandatory programs. It also includes more than $2 billion to renovate Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals and national cemeteries. On the policy rider front, the bill includes language banning the VA from removing a veteran’s firearm rights without a court order. This provision has been subject to intense back-and-forth during final conference negotiations in recent years.
House Appropriations Committee: CJS, Energy and Water, THUD and Interior
The House Appropriations Full Committee adopted its Commerce Justice and Science (CJS) bill by a vote of 32-28, a sharp contrast to the overwhelming bipartisan support for the MilCon-VA bill on the House floor. This comes as no surprise, as CJS is a more highly contested bill due to the agencies it funds. The CJS bill proposes a 13% increase for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and a 31% cut to science agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Ultimately, in conference negotiations, regardless of which party is in power, these funding levels will likely move closer together, and the disparities between agencies will narrow.
House Appropriators also passed the Energy and Water bill out of full committee on party lines. The National Nuclear Security Administration comes out on top in that bill, as does civilian nuclear energy, which sees nearly $2.7 billion in repurposed funds for nuclear reactor demonstration programs.
The Transportation, House and Urban Development (THUD) bill and the Interior-Environment bill were marked up in subcommittee, with full committee markups scheduled for June 4 and June 3 respectively.
Senate Appropriations Budget Hearings
Key hearings during the week of May 19 include the National Institutes of Health (NIH) FY 2027 budget justification hearing, where Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins called proposed cuts to biomedical research “inexplicable.” Top Democrat on the Committee Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) pressed NIH’s director on proposed cuts to medical research to help finance the $1.5 trillion defense budget.
The Senate markup schedule remains elusive. The Senate has approximately 60 days in session between now and October, with an extended recess from August 8 through September 14. This compressed calendar puts pressure on Senate appropriators to move their bills. As a candidate for re-election this year, Chair Collins has a strong incentive to return to Maine during the August recess with cleared bills that benefit her constituents.
What to Watch
Readers are reminded that Congress is unlikely to pass full-year appropriations bills prior to the September 30 funding deadline. We will likely see a continuing resolution (CR) through Election Day. Election outcomes will dictate what happens after that, but it is more likely than not that we will see multiple CRs through the first quarter of the next Congress. In that case, it is likely that much of what is drafted this summer will be renegotiated at that time.
