HR 7006 Passes in the House – 3rd FY 2026 Minibus

Yesterday the House took up HR 7006, the Financial Services and General Government and National Security, Department of State, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2026. This is the third minibus spending bill for FY 2026. The bill as considered under a rule, H Res 992, that provided for limited debate and the consideration of two amendments. The rule passed early in the day by a straight party-line vote of 213 to 210.

The House leadership avoided the difficulty seen in the rule vote for the earlier minibus, by agreeing to floor votes on two amendments offered by Republican bomb-throwers, Rep Roy (R,TX) and Rep Crane (R,AZ). Roy’s amendment on DC Circuit court spending failed by a vote of 163 to 257, with 46 Republicans voting NAY. Similarly, Crane’s amendment to prohibit funding for the National Endowment for Democracy failed by a vote of 127 to 291, with 81 Republicans voting NAY.

The final vote on HR 7006 was a bipartisan 341 to 79, with opposition coming from both Republicans (22) and Democrats (57).

The bill now moves to the Senate for consideration. The Senate is currently scheduled to be out of Washington next week, but it could still take up HR 7006 in the last week in January and still meet the current January 30^th deadline to keep the remainder of the federal government open. This would still leave four spending bills incomplete (DOD, DHS, THUD, and LHH). The House passed the HR 4016, the DOD spending bill back in July, so the Senate could technically complete action on that bill before the deadline arrives. That was a partisan House bill, so it would almost certainly have to be amended in the Senate to pass, which would require a subsequent vote in the House before the bill went to the President. There has not been any announcement yet of a 4^th minibus to close out the spending bills, but with the controversies surrounding those bills (particularly DHS), I suspect that a continuing resolution will be required to keep those agencies open past January 30^th.

Review – HR 5304 Introduced – FY 2026 LHH Spending

Back in September Rep Aderhold introduced HR 5304, the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill contains specific spending authorizations for cybersecurity activities and CBRN response initiatives. The Report contains cybersecurity, chemical safety and UAS discussions.

HR 5304 is similar to HR 9029, the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies [LHH] Appropriations Act, 2025, that was introduced by Alderholt in July, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill the same day. No further action was taken on that bill (or its Senate counterpart, S 4942) in the 118th Congress. The Senate version of the FY 2026 LHH spending bill, S 2587, may be included in the text of the substitute language that will be considered for HR 4016 when the Senate comes back to Washington in January.

Moving Forward

It does not currently look like the House will take up this bill as this is one of the more controversial spending bills, even within the Republican caucus. Spending hawks do not think that enough cuts were made, and moderates are concerned with some of the language related to abortions, transgender issues, and vaccine support. It still looks like the Senate will include the language from their more moderate LHH spending bill as a Division in the language they have been ‘debating’ for HR 4016, the FY 2026 DOD spending bill. The Senate leadership is working towards considering that minibus spending bill early in July. What ever spending bills remain unpassed at the end of the month will likely be dealt with under a year-end continuing resolution, hopefully before the current CR runs out on January 31^st.

 

For more information on the cybersecurity and chemical safety provisions of the bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-5304-introduced-fy-2026-lhh-spending - subscription required.

Review - S 2465 Introduced – FY 2026 THUD Spending

Back in July Sen Hyde-Smith introduced S 2465, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. At the same time the Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the Bill. While there is a cyber security mention in the bill, the main focus here will be PHMSA spending in the bill and discussions in the Report, as well as some UAS discussions in the Report.

S 2465 is be similar to S 4796, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, that was introduced by Sen Schatz (D,HI) in July 2024. No action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress. The related House bill, HR 9028, was also introduced in July 2024, and similarly, no action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress.

Moving Forward

The plan in the House currently appears to be to add the language of S 2431 to the substitute language for the consideration of HR 4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate has not yet held their first cloture vote that would allow actual debate to begin on the bill. This probably indicates that there is still some backroom dealing going on to determine the broad outline of what will end up in the Senate version of the bill. Then further dealing with determining what further amendments will be considered on the floor.

Right now, SA 3951 from Sen Collins (Chair of the Appropriations Committee) is the current candidate for the substitute language to be considered, and it includes the language from S 2431. But a lot can happen in the short legislative month of December.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill dealing with cybersecurity, PHMSA, and UAS issues, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2465-introduced-fy-2026-thud-spending - subscription required.

Review – S 2431 Introduced – FY 2026 IER Spending

Back in July Sen Murkowski (R,AK) introduced S 2431, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026. At the same time the Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report for the bill. The bill includes one cybersecurity mention and there were two related discussions in the Report. The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) was funded. There were seven additional chemical related discussions in the Report, including spending allocations and earmarks.

S 2431 is similar to S 4802, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, that was introduced by Sen Merkley in July 2024. No action was taken on that bill in the 118th Congress. HR 8988, the closely related House bill was passed in the House by a vote of 210 to 205, but no action was taken on the bill in the Senate.

Moving Forward

The plan in the House currently appears to be to add the language of S 2431 to the substitute language for the consideration of HR 4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate has not yet held their first cloture vote that would allow actual debate to begin on the bill. This probably indicates that there is still some backroom dealing going on to determine the broad outline of what will end up in the Senate version of the bill. Then further dealing with determine what further amendments will be considered on the floor.

Right now, SA 3951 from Sen Collins (Chair of the Appropriations Committee) is the current candidate for the substitute language to be considered, and it includes the language from S 2431. But a lot can happen in the short legislative month of December.

 

For more information on the cyber and UAS provisions of this bill, including cyber earmarks, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2431-introduced-fy-2026-ier-spending - subscription required.

Review – S 2354 Introduced – FY 2026 CJS Spending

Back in July Sen Moran (R,KS) introduced S 2354, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. The bill includes two cybersecurity mentions. The Report includes a significant number of cybersecurity mentions and earmarks, as well as one UAS discussion.

This bill is similar to S 4795, the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2025, that was reported in the Senate on July 25^th, 2025. No further action was taken on that bill in the 118^th Congress, or on its House counterpart HR 9026.

Moving Forward

The plan in the House currently appears to be to add the language of S 2354 to the substitute language for the consideration of HR 4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate has not yet held their first cloture vote that would allow actual debate to begin on the bill. This probably signifies that there is still some backroom dealing going on to determine the broad outline of what will end up in the Senate version of the bill. Then further dealing with determine what further amendments will be considered on the floor.

Right now, SA 3951 from Sen Collins (Chair of the Appropriations Committee) is the current candidate for the substitute language to be considered, and it includes the language from S 2354. But a lot can happen in the short legislative month of December.

 

For more information on the cyber and UAS provisions of this bill, including cyber earmarks, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2354-introduced-fy-2026-cjs-spending - subscription required.

HR 4016 to be Considered in Senate – DOD Spending bill

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week the Congressional Record noted that the “Senate began consideration of the motion to proceed to consideration of H.R. 4016, making appropriations for the Department of Defense for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026.” No amendments were listed as having been submitted on either day. The Senate had started to consider the bill back in October, going so far as the filing of a cloture motion to proceed to consideration of the bill, but the cloture vote never happened.

On Thursday Sen Collins submitted SA 3951 as substitute language that the Senate would consider as the first amendment to HR 4016. That amendment would include language from the following Senate bills:

S 2752 (Div A), DOD spending,

S 2354 (Div B), CJS spending,

S 2431 (Div C), IER spending,

S 2587 (Div D), LHH spending, and

S 2465 (Div E), THUD spending.

NOTE: the bills listed above without links have yet to be covered in detail in this blog. I will look at them in the coming week before the Senate comes back to Washington in December.

There is still a lot of political posing, wrangling, and deal making before the Senate gets to a final vote on HR 4016. And then the bill will have to go back to the House where Johnson will require votes from Democrats to pass any language that would meet the minimal bipartisan requirements of the Senate. More likely, the House would insist on their single-bill language and the Senate version would disappear in conference until it was brought back in whole cloth in the January 30^th version of a spending bill/CR.

Review - S 2572 Introduced – FY 2026 DOD Spending

Back in July Sen McConnel (R,KY) introduced S 2572, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill at the same time. There is no cybersecurity mention in the bill. While there are 109 separate mentions of the term ‘cyber’ in the Committee Report, only four of those mention cybersecurity issues of interest here.

The House version of the bill , HR 4016, was introduced in June and passed in the House  by a mainly party-line vote of 221 to 209. This bill is similar to S 4921, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2025, that was introduced by Sen Tester (D,MT) in August 2024. No action was taken on that bill (or it’s House counterpart – HR 8774) in Senate the 118^th Congress.

Moving Forward

Yesterday, the Senate began the process of considering HR 4016, the House version of this bill. No amendments have been offered as of yet (it is still too early in the process), but one of the first will be from McConnel offering the language from this bill (probably updated some) as substitute language. There will be some level of bipartisan support for that substitute (where there would be none for the House language), almost certainly enough for the bill to pass. There has been some reporting that this will be turned into another multi-bus bill, with perhaps LLH and THUD bills included in this substitute language. Bipartisan support is expected.

For more information, including description of significant cybersecurity discussions in Committee Report, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2572-introduced-fy-2026-dod-spending - subscription required.

Review – HR 4016 Passed in House – FY 2026 DOD Spending

Late Thursday (actually just after midnight Friday morning) the House completed their consideration of HR 4016, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026, passing the bill by a mainly party-line vote of 221 to 209.  The bill now goes to the Senate where, under historical circumstances, the Senate will begin consideration of the bill by offering the language from the as of yet unintroduced Senate version of the bill as ‘substitute language’.

Moving Forward

Practically speaking, the Senate is not going to take up HR 4016 until the Senate Appropriations Committee completes their work on their version of the bill. That legislation is not currently on the Committee’s schedule.

 

For more information on the amendments considered, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4016-passed-in-house-fy-2026-dod - subscription required.

H Res 580 Passes in House – Takes up HR 4016 (DOD Spending)

Last night, shortly after 11:00 pm EDT, the vote on H Res 580, the rule for the consideration of HR 4016, the FY 2026 DOD spending bill (and the three cryptocurrency bills that were the cause of the delay in passing the resolution), finally ended, with a final vote of 217 to 212. Rep Green (R,GA) was the lone Republican hold out on the final vote.

The House then began consideration of HR 4016, adjourning shortly after midnight. None of the amendments that the House has/will consider on HR 4016 are of particular interest here.

DOD Spending Bill Rule Blocked – 7-15-25

This afternoon the House took up H Res 580, the House Rule for the consideration of four bills this week, including HR 4016, FY 2026 DOD spending bill. After just a bit less than an hour of debate on the procedural resolution, the House rejected the bill by a vote of 196 to 223. TheHill.com is reporting that the twelve Republicans that voted against the resolution were voting against the other three bills covered in the Rule because those cryptocurrency related bills might have allowed the federal government to establish “a central bank digital currency” (CBDC). The President has reportedly worked out a deal to allow for the Rule to pass in a reconsideration vote tomorrow.