DOD Spending Rule Still Stalled – 7-16-25

Today the House resumed consideration of H Res 580, a rule for consideration of four bills this week, including HR 4016, the FY 2026 DOD spending bill. Yesterday, the vote for this resolution failed by a vote of 196 to 223, with 12 Republicans voting against the rule because of concerns about the cryptocurrency provisions in the other three bills covered in the rule. Supposedly a deal had been worked out to get most of the 12 Republicans voting nay to change their vote during a reconsideration motion. The reconsidered vote on H Res 580 started at 1:18 pm EDT today, and as of 10:45 this evening the vote was still running. The House leadership still does not have enough votes to pass the resolution.

While the conservative revolt is about the cryptocurrency bills, it is holding up consideration of HR 4016. If a successful resolution cannot be reached, the Rules Committee could craft a new rule that only deals with the spending bill, or another combination of bills along with the DOD spending bill. But, while this legislative fiasco is not a direct reflection on the spending bill, it does continue to call into question the ability of the majority party to govern in the House. That does not bode well for attempts to get spending bills to the President before the end of September.