As the government shutdown stretched on, the Senate confirmed four key Department of Education nominees—including the new Assistant Secretaries for Elementary and Secondary Education, Civil Rights, Legislation, and Postsecondary Education—all by a party-line vote of 51–47. The nominees will be sworn in once the government reopens, while the Senate's 11th and 12th procedural votes on continuing resolutions again failed to advance.

The government shutdown began after the Senate took six failed votes on two competing continuing resolutions—the Republican H.R. 5371 and the Democratic S. 2882—with negotiations at an apparent standstill through the week. With the shutdown in its sixth day and Representative Jeffries challenging Speaker Johnson to a debate, the path to reopening the government remained entirely unclear.

With Congress largely out of session in the final week of the fiscal year, the shutdown calculus was complicated by the President cancelling a budget negotiation meeting with Democrats and the Supreme Court temporarily allowing the administration to impound $4 billion in previously appropriated foreign aid—weakening Congress's constitutional power of the purse heading into the final days before October 1. Both chambers held only pro forma sessions; no long-term spending action was taken.

During the final full week of the fiscal year, the House passed a short-term continuing resolution but the Senate rejected it 44–48—and separately failed to advance the Democratic alternative—making a government shutdown at the October 1 deadline highly likely. The Senate also spent time on the National Defense Authorization Act and crime legislation related to the District of Columbia, as negotiations on a CR continued without resolution.

With only two and a half weeks remaining in the fiscal year, both chambers turned to appropriations—with House and Senate Appropriations Committees reporting their FY2026 Labor, HHS, and Education spending bills—though a government shutdown at October 1 appeared increasingly likely given the compressed legislative timeline. Education-related provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act also advanced, including limitations on federal research grants to institutions with certain foreign partnerships.