Inside (the Beltway) Scoop

By: Ellen Kuo
Wednesday, June 24, 2026
Appropriators at Different Stages in Both Chambers

The current state of play regarding the Senate Appropriations Committee is that they scheduled full committee markups of the fiscal year (FY) 2027 Agriculture-Rural Development, Military Construction-Veterans Affairs, Commerce-Justice, and Legislative Branch spending bills for June 25, then had to postpone them. In the meantime, the House Appropriations Committee has completed full committee markups of eleven of twelve spending bills, and two have favorably cleared the House floor. Agriculture, Rural Development, H.R. 8646 and Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, H.R. 8469.  

The House Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies (LHHS) bill, H.R. 9260, along with the accompanying report, H. Report 119-696, is one that was favorably reported out of full committee (34-28). Some noteworthy events happened during the full committee markup with consideration of various amendments. 

Ranking member Rosa DeLauro offered one that would have prevented any funds to be used to implement a final rule for the proposed rule “Regulations for Federal Financial Assistance” at 91 Fed. Reg. 32198 or any successor or similar rule. The amendment failed. Another amendment was made by Representative Andrew Clyde to reduce funding for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease from $6.6 billion to $6.5 billion. LHHS Chair Robert Aderholt pushed back against this amendment. The amendment failed. A third amendment was from Representative Mike Quigley on firearm injury and mortality prevention research that would have included $25 million to support research on the prevention of firearm violence. The amendment instructed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to use its existing research infrastructure to both infuse firearm-related research into other areas of study as well as apply knowledge from other areas of research to firearm-related research, and for NIH to develop a strategic plan to coordinate firearm research and data collection efforts sponsored by other federal agencies. This amendment also failed. A bipartisan manager’s amendment was adopted that placed guardrails on NIH’s ability to fund multiyear awards for FY 2027 by limiting the amount to no more than those in FY 2025. Report language accompanying the LHHS bill noted the Appropriations Committee’s concern about the delays in awarding competitive NIH grants in fiscal year 2026. 

In other appropriations news, the House schedule for the week of June 22 noted the chamber was expected to consider the FY 2027 Energy and Water and National Security-State Department funding bills. It is not clear if those bills will be able to pass the full House, although votes are anticipated at the end of the week.