Congress Returns from Two-Week; Appropriations Front and Center

As previously reported by COSSA, Congress closed out 2025 with a continuing resolution (CR) that ended a historic 43-day government shutdown and punted the appropriations deadline for fiscal year (FY) 2026 to January 31. While there were rumors of a potential second year-long CR for FY 2026, Congress returned from their two-week recess with agreements on final funding levels for several remaining bills. Last week, House and Senate leaders released a three-bill package that includes the Commerce, Justice, and Science (CJS) bill—which provides funding for the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), and others—as well as the Energy and Water, and Interior and Environment bills. The package, which can be found here, largely rejects the President’s proposed budget cuts to federal science agencies (with some exceptions) and instead, provides modest funding decreases for FY 2026. 

COSSA will be releasing a full analysis of the package later this week. In the meantime, here is a preview of what is included in the three-bill minibus: 

A summary of the bill from the House Republicans can be found here, and a summary from the House Democrats here.

If the package passes in the Senate, Congress will have six remaining bills to pass before the January 31 deadline, including the bill that funds the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Department of Education.