Last Week in Congress

Last week, the President signed into law H.R. 2069, the “Stop Secret Spending Act of 2025,” to amend the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 to ensure that other transaction agreements are reported to USAspending.gov. Agencies must now expand reported expenditures to include “other transaction agreements” outside of standard procurement contracts, grants, or cooperative agreements. The law also requires the Office of Inspector General of specified agencies to submit periodic reports to Congress regarding agency spending data and use of data standards. It will be interesting to see how the Department’s spending data, with significant programs and functions now being run, via interagency agreement, through the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Justice, State, Interior, and Treasury, will be considered.

On September 1, the House passed the Senate’s amended version of H.R. 6500, the Continuing Resolution bill by a vote of 370-48. The President signed the measure into law on September 2. (P.L. 119-103). The law continues federal funding through December 11, and postpones finalization and issuance of OMB’s proposed changes to the Uniform Guidance at 2 CFR Part 200. While the continuing resolution moves concerns about a government shutdown until after the midterms, it means that formula and discretionary grantees will still be operating without a clear picture of what their budgets will look like for the coming school year. The House H.R. 4795, the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of 2026 by a vote of 237-169, which would limit access to HEA title IV (federal student aid) funds and title VI (federal funding for foreign language or international education programs) to institutions that participate in nonexpressive commercial boycotts of Israel or do not allow Israeli faculty, students, and institutions to participate in programs in the same manner as other faculty, students, and institutions. Representative Mannion (D-NY) introduced H.R. 10232, prohibiting the transfer of certain offices and functions of the Department of Education to other federal agencies, a partner bill to S. 5046, a bipartisan measure reported out of committee in July.

Break out the popcorn for the fading summer’s big blockbuster. Congress has been home for August recess. One month out from the end of the fiscal year, we’ve got our spotlight on appropriations. The House and Senate both have an unusually early FY2027 funding strategy taking place, with each having passed a version of a Continuing Resolution extending government funding into early December. The President released a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Senate’s version, H.R. 6500, as amended, signaling that he will sign it as passed.

Both the House and Senate are in recess, which means Washington is pulling the Magic 8-Balls out of our dusty childhood closets and trying to predict what’s coming next.

The big questions? Appropriations and the midterms.

At this point, it looks increasingly likely that we’ll be operating under another continuing resolution (CR). But that raises some very consequential questions:

• Will the CR include the proposed delay to the Uniform Guidance changes?

• Will the larger Senate package include the Kaine-Collins-Murkowski provision prohibiting the transfer of certain Department of Education offices and programs?

• And, of course, what else gets tucked into the legislation before Congress heads back to town?

August recess is usually a good time to take a breath. This year, it feels more like the calm before the legislative storm.

Stay tuned. The Magic 8-Ball is still shaking.

Last week, the Senate passed the Continuing Appropriations and Extension Act, 2027, which would continue funding through December 11, 2027. Section 157 of the bill would also delay implementation of OMB’s proposed changes to the Uniform Guidance until December 11. Introduced legislation also hints at looming separation of powers concerns with respect to Executive discretion and Congress’ control over the power of the purse: H.R. 10014 “Restoring Accountability in Appropriations Act” seeks to establish private and congressional rights of action for withholding of federal funds that are not disbursed in line with Congressional authority. 

The Senate Appropriations Committee introduced its Continuing Resolution proposal on Sunday, August 2, which, in the very likely event that a full appropriations package for FY2027 is not enacted by rapidly-approaching end of the fiscal year, would provide continued funding through December 11, 2026. Section 157 of the Continuing Resolution would temporarily pause the implementation of the Office of Management and Budget’s revisions to the Uniform Guidance regulations. In releasing the bill, Chairwoman Collins (R-ME) stated “I am also pleased that this bipartisan agreement prevents the Office of Management and Budget (OMB)’s proposed rule regarding federal financial assistance from taking effect. I advocated for significant changes to the proposed rule in a July 6 letter to the agency, citing its potential to politicize grants and harm small, rural communities, families, and biomedical research.” Missing from the package is any mention of the bipartisan S. 5046 (Kaine, D-VA, Collins, R-ME, Murkowski, R-AK, Baldwin, D-WI, Hassan, D-NH), and Van Hollen, D-MD), which, as reported by the Senate HELP Committee on Thursday, would prohibit the transfer of certain offices out of the Department of Education.