The concurrent resolution passed by the U.S. Senate that recently ended the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history provides funding through Jan. 30, 2026.
Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., speaking with reporters Thursday, said that Senate Republicans have a plan to pass a batch of appropriations bills shortly after the Thanksgiving holiday intended to take the pressure off the upcoming deadline.
In addition to the continuing resolution, Congress OK’d three full-year appropriations bills covering the legislative branch, military construction, Veterans Affairs, agriculture, rural development and the Food and Drug Administration.
“What the leader (Senate Majority Leader John Thune) wants to do — and I’m very much in favor of this as an appropriator — is to take more bills — that would be Defense; Health, Labor and Education; Interior; Transportation; and Commerce/Justice — put them in a bundle and pass them over the floor of the Senate.”
The Senate will be out for Thanksgiving recess for all of next week.
“I think we will be doing that after we return from the Thanksgiving holiday,” Capito said.
Passing the five appropriations bills before the end of year will help speed up the negotiations to fund the government beyond Jan. 30, Capito said.
“If we do that, if we pass those five bills and couple that with the three that were passed, that’s 90% of the government that’s funded,” she said. “That would ease the pressure of the Jan. 30 expiration date.”
Capito, who repeatedly condemned the shutdown, said she hopes lawmakers will be able to avoid another impasse that leads to a lapse in government funding.
“I hope that we don’t go down this path again,” she said. “It’s totally useless and a disservice to West Virginians, to people with services, to federal workers, and the list goes on and on. Very disruptive. And in the end, we ended up pretty much where we started out.”