House Faces CR Deadline as Senate's 90-6 Funding Vote Sets Dec. 11 Target

WASHINGTON -- The House returns from recess Aug. 31 with a tight clock and a Senate-passed spending bill waiting on its desk, as Congress works to avoid a third federal government shutdown in less than a year.

<cite index="20-1">The Senate voted 90-6 on Aug. 8 to pass a continuing resolution that would fund the government through Dec. 11, or until full-year fiscal 2027 appropriations are enacted, whichever comes first.</cite>

<cite index="20-2">The bill maintains funding at fiscal 2026 levels across the 12 major appropriations divisions, while including a series of targeted funding allocations, rescissions and program-specific provisions.</cite>

<cite index="22-4">Senate Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, released the continuing resolution text ahead of the vote.</cite>

The Senate measure differs in two notable ways from the House version passed July 21. <cite index="21-4,21-5">The House bill funds the government through Dec. 4 but omits technical provisions known as anomalies; the Senate version extends funding a week longer, includes those anomalies and temporarily blocks the Office of Management and Budget from finalizing its contested revisions to the Uniform Grant Guidance while the resolution is in effect.</cite>

House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., called the Senate bill an improvement but stopped short of an endorsement. <cite index="18-2,18-3">DeLauro said the measure delays an OMB regulation that would concentrate power over federal grantmaking in the hands of political appointees and also restores language precluding the transfer of funds to the Border Patrol without substantial reforms.</cite>

<cite index="21-6">The House is expected to take up the Senate version when it returns and has White House backing for that approach.</cite>

The stakes aren't abstract. <cite index="23-5">The fiscal 2026 appropriations process wasn't completed until April 2026, after lawmakers agreed on a Department of Homeland Security funding bill that ended a shutdown lasting from Feb. 14 through April 30.</cite> A previous four-day shutdown had hit at the end of January.

Even if the House clears the Senate's continuing resolution before Oct. 1, the hard work stays unfinished. <cite index="21-2">When Congress returns from the August recess, lawmakers will have roughly 15 legislative days to fund the government before fiscal year 2027 begins on Oct. 1.</cite>

<cite index="21-7,21-8">One complicating factor is the Senate's inability to advance bipartisan proposals as it traditionally does; any final spending bill requires 60 votes in the Senate, meaning some Democratic support is necessary.</cite> <cite index="21-10">Disagreements between Senate appropriations leaders have stalled that bipartisan process.</cite>

Transit advocates flagged a separate concern in the Senate bill. <cite index="24-7,24-8">Without advance appropriations in the continuing resolution, federal public transit investment would fall 20 percent from current fiscal 2026 funding levels, and passenger rail investment would drop 83 percent, receiving no guaranteed funding in the form of contract authority or advance appropriations.</cite>

The House's first vote on the matter is expected the week of Aug. 31, according to the Congressional Research Service's appropriations status table, which was updated Aug. 18.

Sources cited:
- National Association of Counties (https://www.naco.org/news/senate-passes-bill-fund-government-through-december-11-and-delay-omb-rule)
- Association of Educational Service Agencies (https://www.aesa.us/2026/08/13/fy2027-appropriations-update/)
- House Appropriations Committee (DeLauro statement) (https://democrats-appropriations.house.gov/news/press-releases/delauro-statement-senate-passage-continuing-resolution)
- Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck client alert (https://www.bhfs.com/insight/cr-and-far-between-can-the-house-and-senate-find-a-funding-solution/)
- Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Appropriations Watch FY2027 (https://www.crfb.org/blogs/appropriations-watch-fy-2027)
- APTA Passenger Transport (https://aptapassengertransport.com/senate-appropriations-committee-leaders-unveil-continuing-resolution/)
- Congress.gov FY2027 Appropriations Status Table (https://www.congress.gov/crs-appropriations-status-table)