The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday advanced legislation that amounts to over $1 trillion in federal discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026, marking the latest move in the government’s fight to avoid a shutdown next month.
The funding package is part of the Senate’s annual funding bills that must be passed before the start of fiscal year 2026, which begins Oct. 1. The Senate panel has passed eight of the 12 annual funding bills so far.
The new legislation consists of nearly $852 billion in discretionary funding for defense programs and just under $200 billion for the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
The defense funding is on top of the $150 billion military boost Republicans passed as part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” earlier this month. It’s also a 3% increase from what Trump requested.
“We can’t build a Golden Dome or restock our munitions or bring back American ship building without a sustained increased investment in all of our national defense, and we can’t treat reconciliation like a cure all,” Kentucky Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell said during the committee hearing, according to The Hill.
“I was glad to vote for the ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ but let’s not kid ourselves. It was not the additive defense spending some of us had hoped for,” he added.
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Author: Ray Hilbrich
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