HR 8029 Introduced – FY 2026 DHS Spending

Last week Rep Ciscomani (R,AZ) introduced HR 8029, the Pay Our Homeland Defenders Act. This bill would provide for spending for the Department of Homeland Security through September 30^th, 2026. For the most part this bill is the same as HR 7147, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026, that is still being ‘considered’ in the Senate.

One provision from HR 7147 is not found in this new bill, §554, Repeal of Senate Notification Requirements Relating to Legal Process on Disclosures of Senate Data. The same provision was included in HR 7148 {§105, Division H}, the last FY 2026 minibus spending bill that was passed in February.

HR 8029 includes the actual text of the spending bill as Division A of the bill. Division B, Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026, addresses the period of no funding since February 13^th, 2026. It provides the legal language authorizing back pay for DHS employees, and other obligations made by the Department during that period.

The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet tomorrow to formulate the rule for the consideration of this bill.

House Concurs in Senate Amendment to HR 7148

Earlier this afternoon, the House took up the Senate Amendment to HR 7148, that removed Division H, DHS spending, from HR 7148 and provided a two-week continuing resolution for that sole remaining unapproved FY 2026 spending bill. At 11:42 am EST the House began their vote of H Res 1032, the rule for the consideration of the Senate Amendment to HR 7148. That resolution was approved by a near party-line vote of 212 to 210; Rep Rose (R,TN) voted Nay and five representatives from each party did not vote. After a one-hour debate the House concurred in the amendment by a more complex vote of 217 to 214; 21 members from each party crossed party line and only Rep Crenshaw (R,TX).

HR 7148 goes to the President who is expected to sign it tonight, with the government being fully re-opened tomorrow. The two appropriations committees will start working in earnest on negotiating a version of the DHS spending bill that will have some sort of chance of passing in both houses. That bill will have to be passed by February 13^th, 2026 or DHS will face another shutdown.

Rule for HR 7148 Senate Amendment – Consolidated Appropriations

 This evening the House Rules Committee held a rule hearing for three bills that ill be considered under a rule, that includes the Senate Amendment to HR 7148 that removes the DHS spending portion of the bill and substitutes continuing resolution language for that Division. The Committee approved a closed rule to concur with the Senate Amendment by a party-line vote of 8 to 4. This means that there will be just one hour of debate on the Amendment, no amendments to be offered, and a single vote on passage.

A large portion of the federal government remains under shutdown since Friday midnight because the Senate amended the last minibus spending bill on Friday, the last day of the latest continuing resolution. If the House concurs with the Senate Amendment tomorrow, as is mostly expected, the completed bill goes to the President for signature. There remains a chance that the bill will fail in House tomorrow; House Democrats are not expected to vote for the Senate Amendment as an expression of their concerns about recent lethal immigration enforcement activities by ICE and CBP. If more than two Republicans also vote Nay on the bill because of underlying spending issues, then the bill would fail. Of course, each Democrat that did vote in favor of the Senate Amendment would provide legislative cover for an additional Republican to vote their fiscal concerns.

The House is expected to vote on the rule at about 11:30 am EST. If the rule passes a vote on the Senate Amendment is expected at about 1:00 pm EST.

HR 7148 Fails Cloture Vote – Last FY 2026 Minibus

Yesterday the Senate continued their efforts to pass HR 7148, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026. The Senate voted on the first cloture vote to “to proceed to consideration of H.R. 7148”, the first of potentially three such votes before the bill would actually be voted upon. That vote, as many people expected, failed by a vote of 45 to 55. All of the Democrats voted Nay as did eight Republican; Thune changed his vote to Nay hen the original vote failed as a procedural move.

The Democrats, including Sen Fetterman (D,OH) who had earlier vowed to vote for the bill, expressing their concerns about recent immigration related actions in Minnesota. The seven Republican opposed the bill on entirely separate, fiscally related grounds. It is not clear that they would have voted against the bill if ten Democrats had voted for the bill, allowing for the 60-votes necessary for passage of the bill.

It appears that a deal has been worked out to approve five of the six spending bills included in HR 7148 and to provide a to eek continuing resolution for the DHS portion of the bill. That would allow the Senate and House to iron out ICE/CBP reform language to be included in the final DHS spending bill.

One last roadblock was thrown up last night. Sen Graham (R,SC) vowed to block unanimous consent to bypass the remaining cloture votes (essentially shutting down consideration in the Senate) over a provision the House included in the bill to disallow Senators from suing DOJ over their wiretaps on Senator’s phones. A deal is still being worked out to overcome that problem. A reconsideration vote for that cloture motion is scheduled for 11:00 am EDT.

If the Senate approves an amended version of HR 7148 today, the government will still technically shut down at midnight since the House is not expected to take up that version of the bill until Monday. While the President has signaled his support for the change, it is not yet clear that the revised bill can pass in the House.

Review – HR 7147 and HR 7148 Passed in House

Yesterday the House took up the last two spending bills, HR 7147 and HR 7148. After passing the rule for the consideration of the two bills (H Ress 1014) by an expected party-line vote of 214 to 213, they first considered HR 7148, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 (covering DOD, LHH, and THUD spending). After rejecting the two proposed amendments authorized by the rule, the House passed HR 7148 by a bipartisan vote of 341 to 88 (24 Republicans and 64 Democrats voting Nay). The House then took up HR 7147, the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026. They passed that bill by a near party-line vote of 220 to 207 (1 Republican voting Nay and 7 Democrats voting Yeah).

 

For more details about these bills, including DHS extenders and legislative poison pills, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7147-and-hr-7148-passed-in-house - subscription required. Free subscription holders will receive a delayed copy of the premium CFSN article.

Review – Bills Introduced – 1-20-26 – Bills Introduced –1-20-26

Yesterday with just the House in Washington, there were 23 bills introduced. Two of those bills will receive additional coverage in this blog:

HR 7147 Making further consolidated appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2026, and for other purposes. Cole, Tom [Rep.-R-OK-4]

HR 7148 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026 Cole, Tom [Rep.-R-OK-4] 

I briefly discussed HR 7147 and HR 7148 yesterday. The official text for both bills (HR 7147 and HR 7148) is available.

 

For more information on these bills, including a discussion about a possible DHS shutdown, as well as a mention in passing about a USDA security ties bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/bills-introduced-1-20-26 - subscription required.

Rule Hearing for Last Minibus and DHS Spending Bills

This afternoon the House Rules Committee announced that it would hold a rule hearing tomorrow on two spending bills; HR 7148 - Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, and HR 7147 - Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026. HR 7148 is the 4^th FY 2026 minibus and includes DOD, LHH, and THUD spending bills. HR 7147 is an attempt at crafting a bipartisan DHS Spending bill.

As with the three earlier minibus bills that have passed in the House, the Rules Committee page includes an explanatory statement for each of the bill’s divisions.

Division A - Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2026,

Division B - Departments of Labor, Health And Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026, and

Division D - Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2026,

According to the ‘Front Matters’ explanatory statement, there was a Division C - Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026, but it was moved to HR 7147. Apparently, the leadership decided that they did not want to chance that concerns about immigration theatrics endangering the passage of the three remaining spending bills in HR 7148.

The rule hearing is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and it is likely to run late into the evening. The Housse should vote on both bills on Thursday. This would give the Senate a chance to squeeze all three spending bills into floor votes before midnight on January 30^th, 2026, the deadline for the current spending bill.

There are questions about whether there is a chance that this DHS spending bill (or any DHS spending bill in the current environment) can pass in the Senate. A press release from Sen Murray (D,WA), Ranking Member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, makes the following point:

““What we have seen from Kristi Noem’s Department of Homeland Security is frankly sick and un-American. ICE is out-of-control, terrorizing people, including American citizens, and actively making our communities less safe. ICE must be reined in, and unfortunately, neither a CR nor a shutdown would do anything to restrain it, because, thanks to Republicans, ICE is now sitting on a massive slush fund it can tap whether or not we pass a funding bill. The suggestion that a shutdown in this moment might curb the lawlessness of this administration is not rooted in reality: under a CR and in a shutdown, this administration can do everything they are already doing—but without any of the critical guardrails and constraints imposed by a full-year funding bill.”