Some Democrats temper shutdown talk as three-bill funding package lands

With another funding cliff looming, Congress is trying something almost old-fashioned: passing actual spending bills.

With some Democrats seeking to reassure voters that there won't be another government shutdown, lawmakers on Monday released a bipartisan, three-bill “minibus” covering Commerce, Justice and Science as the latest appropriations step since the bipartisan deal that ended the 43-day government shutdown in November 2025.

The move is designed to blunt the next shutdown threat with the Jan. 30 deadline approaching, and it would fund several departments through Sept. 30, the end of fiscal 2026.

Minibus Released As Deadline Pressure Builds

The package totals $78 billion for the covered agencies, with $71 billion in non-defense spending and $6 billion in defense spending.

Even in a town that loves drama, this is the kind of math that signals seriousness: full-year numbers, not another rinse-and-repeat stopgap.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) said he aims to bring the spending package to the House floor later in the week.

Democratic Appropriators Signal Approval

The top Democratic appropriators in the House and Senate expressed satisfaction with the package, a notable posture after the bruising shutdown that ended in November.

Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the Senate Appropriations Committee’s ranking member, framed the bills as a check on the executive branch. “Importantly, passing these bills will help ensure that Congress, not President Trump and Russ Vought, decides how taxpayer dollars are spent — by once again providing hundreds of detailed spending directives and reasserting congressional control over these incredibly important spending decisions.”

That line about “detailed spending directives” is the tell: Washington loves control, and both parties tend to rediscover the Constitution right around appropriations season.

DeLauro Emphasizes Congress And Constraints

Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, the House Appropriations Committee’s ranking member, said Monday she looks forward to voting for the package and argued it restores legislative leverage. “Perhaps most importantly, this legislation reasserts Congress’s power of the purse.”

DeLauro also warned against more temporary funding measures that, in her view, hand discretion to the administration. “Rather than another short-sighted stop-gap measure that affords the Trump Administration broader discretion, this full-year funding package restrains the White House through precise, legally binding spending requirements.”

The subtext is hard to miss: even lawmakers who complain about gridlock do not want a blank check, especially when the White House isn’t run by their team.

Shutdown Rhetoric Softens In Leadership Interviews

Democratic leaders also signaled, at least publicly, they are not eager to use a shutdown as leverage in January.

On ABC’s “This Week” Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Democrats would not push for another shutdown in January. “No. There are two separate tracks here,” Schumer said.

Schumer added that “Democrats want to fund the appropriations, the spending bills all the way through 2026,” saying, “We want to work with a bicameral, bipartisan way to do it,” and arguing that Republican appropriators are working with Democrats and that “we’re making good progress in that regard.”

Jeffries Stresses Health Care And Bipartisanship

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, speaking Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet The Press,” appeared to avoid directly answering whether he would support another shutdown over health care subsidies.

“First of all, we need to resolve this issue within the next week or so, protect the healthcare of the American people and then continue to fix our broken healthcare system and address the Republican healthcare crisis that’s devastating everyday Americans including as a result of the fact that they enacted the large of the cut to Medicaid in American history,” Jeffries said.

Jeffries also pointed back to the appropriations table: “We’ve also said as it relates to the appropriations process that we’ll sit down any time, any place with anyone in order to find a bipartisan path forward to enact a spending agreement that actually makes life better for the American people.”

Regular Order Goal Meets A Long To-Do List

The minibus pushes congressional leaders — including Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune — closer to funding the government through regular order rather than leaning on stopgap funding bills.

But it is only part of the workload, with six more appropriations bills still to pass for fiscal 2026: Transportation, Housing and Urban Development; State and Foreign Operations; Labor and Health and Human Services; Homeland Security; Financial Services and General Government; and Defense.

In the November shutdown deal, Congress funded Agriculture and Federal Drug Association, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and the Legislative Branch — leaving this week’s Commerce, Justice and Science minibus as the next test of whether lawmakers can keep the lights on without another self-inflicted crisis.