# Congress Moves to Finalize FY26 Appropriations Senate Passage of Remaining Funding Bills Expected Next Week January 23, 2026 On Thursday, the House approved (341-88; 220-207) the remaining fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills, providing full-year funding for the Departments of Health and Human Services, Education, Labor, Defense, and Homeland Security and rejecting the deep cuts proposed by the Administration in key science and education accounts. The Senate is expected to pass the package next week, completing congressional action on FY26 funding. With the Administration indicating the President will sign the final funding measures, this will bring the FY26 process to a close and avoid the possibility of another continuing resolution or a partial government shutdown on January 30. Included below are more details on agency and program-level funding, policy provisions, and early implications for FY27. At a high level, it is good news for the higher education and research communities. Reasserting the longstanding bipartisan support for research and education and the constellation of agencies that support them, Congress moved away from the Administration’s proposals for cuts, eliminations and/or consolidations in key agencies and priorities and provided stable (and in some cases slightly increased) funding as well as protective language on facilities & administrative costs. **Final Fiscal Year 26 (FY26)** When [Congress enacted its most recent CR in November](https://ofr.harvard.edu/news/2025/12/congress-wraps-2025), it included full-year Military Construction-VA, Agriculture-FDA, and Legislative Branch funding bills, leaving nine bills to be negotiated and passed ahead of the January 30 deadline. Earlier this month, Congress continued to make progress when a package of three more funding bills, Commerce-Justice-Science, Interior-Environment, and Energy-Water was enacted. Two other bills -- Financial Services-General Government, and National Security-State – were passed by the House last week but have not yet seen action in the Senate. The bills that passed the House last night complete the final four FY26 funding bills -- the Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, and Transportation-HUD bills in one package and Homeland Security separately. Despite the significant delay in reaching this point (the fiscal year began October 1), appropriators in both chambers worked to strike deals that resulted in compromise spending bills that have achieved significant bipartisan support for most agencies. On timing, the House recessed for a week after completing votes on the funding bills yesterday, leaving the Senate, when it returns to DC next week, to take up and pass the final legislation. Procedurally, the House is sending one piece of legislation to the Senate that includes all of the six outstanding funding bills: the Labor-HHS-Education, Defense, Transportation-HUD, Homeland Security, Financial Services-General Government, and National Security-State bills. It is anticipated that joining them all together, and the impending January 30 expiration of the current CR, will ease and speed its passage. Despite some last-minute concern about various compromises that were struck, all indications are that this legislation will pass and be signed into law before the current CR expires. The chart below provides the final FY26 funding levels for the University’s priorities included in this last package as well as in those bills already enacted. Sort **FY26 PBR** **FY26 PBR v FY25 CR** **Final FY26** **FY26 v FY25** **Labor-HHS-Education (in millions)** NIH - Total 28350.2 -39.4% 47216 0.9% ARPA-H 945 -37% 1500 0.0% AHRQ 240 -35% 345.4 -6.4% CDC 4000 -56.6% 9203 -0.2% Pell Grants (Discretionary Funding) 22475 0.0% 22475 0.0% Pell Grants (Max Grant - actual dollars) 5710 -22.8% 7395 0.0% Work Study 250 -79.7% 1230 0.0% SEOG 0 -100% 910 0.0% TRIO 0 -100% 1191 0.0% GEAR UP 0 -100% 388 0.0% Title VI 0 -100% 80.7 -5.8% GAANN 0 -100% 19.5 -17% Institute of Education Sciences 261.3 -67% 789.6 -0.4% Institute of Museum and Library Services 0 -100% 291.8 -1% **Commerce-Justice-Science (in millions)** NSF - Total 3903.2 -56.9% 8750 -3.4% NSF- Research and Related 3276.2 -54.3% 7176.5 0% NSF - Major Research Equipment 251 7.3% 251 7.3% NSF - Ed & HR 288 -75.4% 938.2 -19.9% NASA - Total 18555 -25.3% 24438 -1.6% NASA - Science 3908 -46.7% 7250 -1.1% NASA - Aeronautics 589 -37% 935 0% NASA - STEM Engagement 0 -100% 143 0% NIST – Total\* 1135 -1.9% 1847.1 59.7% NIST - Scientific and Technical Research 707.2 -17.5% 1249.2 45.7% **Defense (in millions)** Basic Research 2452.9 -6.7% 2374 -9.7% Applied Research 5795.9 -23.8% 7201 -5.3% DARPA 4369.9 6% 4378 6.2% **Energy and Water (in millions)** Office of Science - Total 7092 -13.9% 8400 1.9% High Energy Physics 0 -100% 1235.2 2.9% Nuclear Physics 0 -100% 866.1 7.7% Basic Energy Sciences 0 -100% 2678.5 2% Biological and Envir. Research 0 -100% 854 -5.1% ARPA-E 190 -58.7% 350 -23.9% **Interior-Environment (in millions)** NEA 0 -100% 207 0% NEH 0 -100% 207 0% EPA S&T 500.1 -33.9% 744.2 -1.6% *\*This includes more than $400 million in congressionally directed spending (earmarks).* On research policy, the appropriations measures include language barring the Administration from unilaterally altering current Facilities and Administrative (F&A) cost reimbursement rates, covering every major research-funding agency, including NIH, NSF, and DOD. There is also a provision prohibiting NIH from increasing the proportion of grants that are forward funded, blocking the President’s proposal to transition away from incremental funding for 50 percent of external awards, which, in effect, would have dramatically reduced the number of new awards and success rates. On the Administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education and shift its essential functions to other agencies, the bill includes language that the Department has no authority to transfer its responsibilities to other agencies without approval of Congress and stronger report language emphasizing this long-standing authority. It also specifies that staffing levels be appropriate to meet statutory obligations. It is unclear however how much of a check these provisions will ultimately be on the Administration. Where the President proposed eliminating or at least halving certain agencies, the bills provide a strong rebuke with education accounts like Federal Work-Study, SEOG, and International and Foreign-Language Education level-funded or only slightly cut, and agencies like NSF, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities, and the Institute of Education Sciences held relatively stable. And NIH, which faced a 40 percent proposed cut, received an increase in each of the House and Senate’s initial drafts and the final bill. The final deal also includes a package of healthcare policies long under consideration, including pharmaceutical benefit manager reform, reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program, and extensions of Medicare home-care authorities and Community Health Center funding. **FY27 Look Ahead** FY26’s late completion puts additional pressure on the FY27 process, which already faces the challenging politics and truncated work schedule of a midterm election year. The delay in the final funding levels slows the development of the President’s budget request (PBR) as agencies work with the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to finalize their portions of the FY27 request, which is statutorily due on the first Monday of February, but seldom meets that deadline. With the President slated to deliver his State of the Union Address on February 24, the PBR will likely come after he has the chance to emphasize his priorities in this address to Congress – likely in early March. Once the President releases the FY27 budget request, completing the funding bills will be a major focus for Congress. Although it is unlikely that Congress will be distracted by a reconciliation package, as they were last year, expectations are low for more than limited progress on advancing individual FY27 funding bills ahead of the November congressional midterms. This will likely force a CR and a lame duck session to advance the FY27 process in late November and December. **Contact Us** As always, Harvard’s federal relations team in Washington will remain closely engaged and coordinate with peer institutions and national associations to advocate for core University priorities. If you have any questions, please feel to be in touch with Suzanne Day ([suzanne\_day@harvard.edu](mailto:suzanne_day@harvard.edu)), Kara Haas ([kara\_haas@harvard.edu](mailto:kara_haas@harvard.edu)), or Peter DeYoe ([peter\_deyoe@harvard.edu](mailto:peter_deyoe@harvard.edu)). See also:- [ Budget and Appropriations ](/issues/budget-appropriations) - [ Washington Updates ](/news-source/washington-update) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)