The Senate passed its first three spending bills Friday, taking swift action after leaders struck a bipartisan agreement to package the bills together earlier in the day.
The chamber voted 87-9 to pass a two-bill package to fund the departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, along with military construction and the Food and Drug Administration. In a separate 81-15 vote they also passed a third bill to fund Congress itself.
With federal cash set to dry up at the end of September, the Senate’s minibus would do nothing to stave off a government shutdown that could potentially hobble federal agencies in October. But Senate leaders still want to move that package through with the goal of gaining leverage in the broader spending talks with the House and President Donald Trump.
“It’s taken a great deal of work, good faith and negotiation to get to this point,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine). “Congress has a responsibility, a constitutional responsibility under Article I, for the power of the purse. We are executing that responsibility.”
The package would provide almost $154 billion for military construction and veterans programs. It would send more than $27 billion to the Agriculture department and FDA. Both represent a roughly 2 percent boost over current levels.
The Senate rejected an amendment from Sen. Jeff Merkley, an appropriator and the top Democrat on the Senate Budget Committee, that would bar the rescission, or clawback, of funds in the bill by the White House. Democrats are worried that the administration will send another rescissions package ahead of the fall funding deadline, which would likely implode any hopes of getting a larger funding deal.
Still, Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, defended the smaller deal reached among senators, saying that the package “rejects damaging cuts from Trump and House Republicans.”
The Senate adopted by voice vote an amendment from Democratic Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Alex Padilla of California that would bar the use of any funds in the bill to reduce services provided by the Veterans Crisis Line.
Senators rejected other amendments from Democrats including one that would have halted funding of the Agriculture Department reorganization and another to require a report on staffing reductions at the VA.
They also rejected amendments from Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Rick Scott (R-Fla.) that would have made deeper cuts to the Agriculture-FDA bill.
The chamber also voted 75-21 to reject a proposal from Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin that would bar lawmakers from taking credit for earmarks. It would require the funding to be revoked if a lawmaker were to ever tout their earmarks in interviews, mailings, speeches or even on the campaign trail.
The separate vote on the Legislative Branch measure was part of a side deal struck with Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who objected to the amount of spending in the $7.1 billion bill and demanded the chance to vote against it separately. It is the smallest of the 12 annual spending bills.
“I think we need to set an example,” Kennedy said on the floor ahead of the vote.
The Legislative Branch bill will be combined with the two-bill package and sent to the House as a bundle under the bipartisan agreement laid out by Collins earlier Friday.
The Senate’s progress is a U-turn from just Thursday night when tensions were running high after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) blocked the ability to bring up a four-bill package that would have incorporated funding for the Justice and Commerce departments as well as other agencies.
Van Hollen blocked funding of the DOJ bill because of a stalemate that developed after the Trump administration backtracked earlier this year from a years-long process that would have moved FBI headquarters to Maryland. The Senate punted the Justice-Commerce funding bill until after the August recess.
Congress will ultimately have to consider a continuing resolution that wards off a shutdown on Oct. 1 and buys more time for bicameral, bipartisan talks on a government funding deal for the coming fiscal year.
Some House lawmakers are angling for another lengthy stopgap, while Senate leadership is hoping to get some full-year bills to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature before the shutdown deadline. That would let them have parts of the government funded for fiscal 2026, while running the rest of the government on a short-term spending patch.
Cassandra Dumay and Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.
