Bipartisan Spending Deals Could Emerge After Shutdown Ends

Congress is close to a deal on its first three fiscal 2026 spending bills — if lawmakers can first resolve the shutdown.

Republican negotiators say they are near a bicameral, bipartisan agreement on three bills funding Agriculture-FDA, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-VA programs, among the least contentious of the 12 annual appropriations measures. They’ve also considered another three-bill package of bicameral negotiations and a two-bill pairing of the Senate’s largest funding bills.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) underscored the progress on those bills earlier this week when he told reporters he’d promised Senate Appropriations Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-Wash.) he would ...