New FY 2026 Spending Minibus Rule Hearing 1-6-26

Yesterday the House Rules Committee added a new (not yet introduced) spending bill to the slate of bills to be considered in this evening’s rule hearing. The bill would combine three (CJS, EWR, and IER) of the nine outstanding spending bills in a single bill. Since the House has already passed a standalone EWR bill (HR 4553), I would assume (not yet having perused the 414 page bill in any kind of detail) that this minibus is somewhat less partisan than the three bills originally introduced in the House.

Interestingly, the two other spending bills are potentially being considered in the Senate as part of their possible minibus consideration of HR 4016.

The big question in the 119^th Congress is always going to be if a spending bill is going to bipartisan enough to pass in the Senate. If it is it will have a hard time passing in the House under a rule because of the tiny majority the Republicans have combined with the willingness of the spending hawks to vote against any thing less than a strictly partisan bill. Or we could just see the Republicans passing partisan bills and seeing them amended in the Senate to a more moderate version that would then pass in the House with Democratic support. Of course, there are just 25 days left until the current continuing resolution expires.

This bill has not yet made its way to the Majority Leader’s weekly schedule beyond the broad statement that: “Consideration of items related to FY26 Appropriations are possible.”