Inside (the Beltway) Scoop

By: Ellen Kuo
Thursday, February 12, 2026
President Signs Bill to Fund NIH for FY 2026

On February 3, the president signed H.R. 7148, the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026, which funds the National Institutes of Health at $47.2 billion, or a $415 million increase from fiscal year (FY) 2025. The bill contained Defense, Transportation-HUD, Financial Services, National Security-State and the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education appropriations acts for 2026. The House voted  217 to 214 for passage of the bill from the Senate. This is a victory for House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had to rally his party members since a prolonged partial government shutdown that began at 12:01 am ET on January 31, 2026, would not have been beneficial to the country or the party. Nonetheless, twenty-one Republicans voted against passage, but an equal number of Democrats crossed the aisle to support passage. Federal agencies are open following a two-day shutdown that ended once the president signed H.R. 7148 into law.

This is another major victory for appropriators who wanted to see the completion of all 12 FY 2026 spending bills. Currently, 11 of the 12 spending bills for FY 2026 have been enacted into law. Only the Homeland Security bill did not receive full-year funding. Instead, there was an extension of its current funding from FY 2025 until February 13, 2026, in H.R. 7148 to allow lawmakers to negotiate on the terms for full-year funding of the Department of Homeland Security. The agency was established in 2002, combining 22 federal departments and agencies into a Cabinet agency, and is seen as “ungainly” and needing reform. Appropriators would prefer changes to the agency be done through authorizing committees, however.