Senate to Consider HR 3944 – FY 2026 MilCon Spending

On Thursday the Senate began the process to begin consideration of HR 3944, the FY 2026 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. A cloture motion was filed to close debate on the motion to proceed to consideration of HR 3944. The Senate will take up that cloture motion next week.

This begins the lengthy regular order process in the Senate. We should start to see amendments offered next week. Where the House uses the Rules Committee to select which amendments make it to the floor for consideration, the Senate Majority Leader, Sen Thune (R,SD), in consultation with the leadership of both Parties, decides which amendments to consider. Generally, votes in the Senate require a 3/5^th majority vote.

While this bill is of lower interest here than many of the remaining 11 spending bills, this is the one that is most likely to be able to pass in both the Senate and House. Having said that, spending bill language that can meet the 60-vote threshold in the Senate will have a hard time getting past the conservative fringe in the House. This bill will be an interesting look at whether the 119^th Congress can get past recent history and get any spending bills to the President by September 30^th, 2025.