Senate Departs for July Recess After Appropriations Markups Delayed
Over the weekend, the Senate departed Capitol Hill for a two-week July 4 recess, and are not scheduled to return until July 13, leaving only a few weeks until August recess to consider their appropriations bills. Before their departure, the Senate Appropriations Committee again delayed consideration of the Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) appropriations bill for fiscal year (FY) 2027. The bill, which was originally scheduled for June 4 and rescheduled for June 25, was postponed alongside several other appropriations bills (see previous coverage).
According to recent reports, the Senate Republicans’ dwindling majority amidst the recent hospitalization of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Chair of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, contributed to the delays. Further, without an agreement on top-line spending allocations, it’s unclear if the Senate will have the support they need to advance their more controversial appropriations bill out of committee—including the CJS and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (LHHS) bills. Midterm elections could also complicate the process as legislators up for re-election could return to the campaign trail as early as October. The House Appropriations Committee passed all twelve of its respective appropriations bills; several of these bills included steep cuts to federal agencies important to the social and behavioral science research community (see analyses here). Still, we remain far off from any final decisions on FY 2027 funding.
In related news, late last week President Trump declined to sign into law the 21st Century Road to Housing Act (H.R. 6644), a bipartisan housing affordability and development bill, and announced that he would not sign any new bills into law until Congress passes the SAVE Act (H.R. 22), which seeks to require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote during federal elections. This is not the first time President Trump has stalled legislative activity over the SAVE Act; during the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) partial government shutdown, he also pledged to not sign any bills into law until the voter I.D. bill was passed (see previous coverage).
On June 29, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) unveiled a plan to attach the SAVE Act to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). As the bill is unlikely to gain the support it would need to pass in the Senate when they return, House Speaker Johnson has stated that Republicans will also consider attaching the SAVE Act to a third reconciliation bill, which has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle. As previously reported, the Trump Administration signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1) on July 4, 2025, which reallocated resources in order to pay for permanent tax cuts and increase funding for border security activities, and the House Republicans are already in the process of drafting a second reconciliation bill to provide additional funding to the Department of Defense (DOD) (see previous coverage). With Congress turning their attention to the SAVE Act, this could become another obstacle for Congress to pass the FY 2027 appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year on September 30.
Stay tuned for COSSA’s continued coverage of the FY 2027 appropriations process.