It Has Been a (Mostly) Good Thing – RedState
The 2026 session of the 119th Congress is off to a productive start, and it’s only a week into the new year. While news stories surrounding the expansion of the Affordable Care Act subsidies have taken up much of the oxygen, Congress has done some heavy lifting and good work in passing three minibus appropriations bills. If these measures passed the Senate with the same bipartisan support as the House, it could potentially avoid a government shutdown.
The House passed three appropriations bills Thursday with broad bipartisan support, bringing lawmakers closer to a month-end shutdown.
The bills would fund the Department of Justice, the Department of Commerce, major science agencies and other related entities; the Ministry of Energy and Water Development; and the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, and other related agencies.
The vote on final passage of the package was 397-28, and it will now head back to the Senate.
“This bipartisan, bicameral package reflects continued progress toward responsible completion of FY26 funding. It invests in critical priorities for the American people: making our communities safer, supporting affordable and reliable energy, and responsibly managing vital resources,” House Appropriations Chairman Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) previously said in a statement.
Thanks to the overwhelming stench of Minnesota’s Somali fraud, moderate Democrats aligned with fiscal conservatives to cut an allocation for Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) that was intended for — you guessed it — a Somali-led organization, as well as funding for a community project. They were also smart about streamlining the bills. Because a justice and commerce bill was presented as a stand-alone, lawmakers were more likely to vote in favor of it because they could voice their objections individually.
Learn more: Watch: Unhinged Democratic Rep. Must Be Distanced From Tom Emmer In Heated Exchange Over Minneapolis Shooting
Watch: Brandon Gill goes scorched earth during Democrat’s testimony on Minnesota’s $9 billion Somali fraud scandal
So far, Congress has passed three of the 12 appropriations bills needed to fund the government. If these three bills pass the Senate and are signed by President Trump, lawmakers will still need to pass six more appropriations bills by the end of January.
Congress is in the zone and, it seems, pushing Trump’s agenda. So much so that they did not vote to override President Trump’s vetoes of Congressional bill HR 131, which would have continued construction of the Arkansas Valley Conduit (AVC) water pipeline, and Congressional bill HR 504, which would have required the Secretary of the Interior to appropriate and safeguard a portion of Miccosukee tribal lands in the Florida Everglades.
The House on Thursday failed to override President Trump’s vetoes of two previously uncontroversial bills involving a water project in Colorado and the expansion of a tribe’s lands in Florida.
The move shows House Republicans’ loyalty to the president and their support for his policy battles, with vetoes seen as examples of Trump’s political grudges.
Dive Deeper: Here’s how: Trump vetoes decades-old legislation that promotes waste
Breaking: Bipartisan House vote gets GOP help to extend ACA subsidies for 3 years, sends bill to Senate
But in their zeal to abandon health care funding (or allow the Senate to cut it), 17 House Republicans voted with Democrats to extend expired Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years, as RedState’s Becca Lower reported.
As Fox News’ Chad Pergram reported, the vote was expected to pass on a bipartisan basis; The “coalition of lawmakers bypassed the President to introduce this bill. Expired subsidies were at the heart of the government shutdown.”
He now heads to the U.S. Senate, where his fate is currently uncertain; he rejected a similar bill in December, readers may recall. The bipartisan group in the upper chamber already has differences in its bill, including over the number of years it would cover, among other provisions.
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) said the House has wasted its time with this bipartisan race over the House speaker. One of the main sticking points of this expansion is that it includes removing the Hyde Amendment to allow federal funding of abortions.
“We do not federally fund abortion,” Moreno said. “It’s a long-standing tradition, no one is trying to change it.”
The House expansion is also doomed to fail because Senate Republicans have their own agenda for a revamped health care plan. At least this time they have one handy.
Editor’s note: The mainstream media continues to distract, gaslight, spin, and lie about President Trump, his administration, and conservatives.
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