Little sign of spending progress as top appropriators meet
Source: Roll Call
Posted November 20, 2025 at 4:38pm
The top four House and Senate appropriators met Thursday for the first time since the partial government shutdown but emerged with no breakthroughs that could pave the way for a new spending package. The meeting marked a small, positive step toward bipartisan negotiations that would be needed for an eventual deal. But so far, the two chambers and the two parties remain on different paths when it comes to fiscal 2026 spending bills.
Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, favors moving a massive package of up to five bills, featuring the two largest — Defense and Labor-HHS-Education. But there is no sign of any bipartisan agreement on overall spending limits, a major impediment to moving a package that would well exceed $1 trillion and make up the bulk of the year’s discretionary spending.
By contrast, House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., wants to move a smaller batch of bills that could conceivably be enacted before Christmas. House Appropriations ranking member Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said no decisions about the contents of the next package were made during the meeting, though it was discussed. Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., also attended.
While the House Appropriations Committee has reported all 12 of its annual spending bills out of committee, the Senate panel has not yet held markups for its four most difficult bills — Energy-Water, Financial Services, Homeland Security and State-Foreign Operations.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/11/20/little-sign-of-spending-progress-as-top-appropriators-meet/