Syntha (@syntha.bsky.social)

Congress finalizes first piece of funding package to sweeten shutdown endgame Lawmakers have released text for one piece of a three-bill government funding package — a key ingredient in a possible deal to end the shutdown that’s going on for 40 days. The first piece of the three-part legislation, released Sunday, would fund programs and benefits for veterans, as well as Defense Department construction projects, for the 2026 fiscal year. Portions of the so-called minibus that would fund the Department of Agriculture and the operations of Congress through the end of the current fiscal year are still being finalized. Passed on its own, the package would not reopen all federal programs or deliver on Democrats’ demand for an extension of expiring health insurance subsidies. But top lawmakers see it as a significant demonstration of bipartisan compromise that could help break the shutdown impasse after nearly six weeks of partisan sparring. Senate Republicans are expected to meet Sunday afternoon once the full minibus text is released to review and discuss the compromise spending legislation. “We plan to vote today” to reconsider the House-passed stopgap spending bill, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Sunday. Thune has proposed combining the three-bill bundle with a separate stopgap to fund the remaining federal agencies, potentially running into late January. The minibus has for weeks been a subject of cross-party conversations aimed at finding a path out of the shutdown. Those talks have centered on a new stopgap linked to the full-year bills, plus a vote to continue the Obamacare subsidies that will expire Dec. 31 and are used by more than 20 million people who buy health insurance in Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Thune has pointed to the release of the minibus text as an “opportunity” for Democrats to “firm up their views” on whether or not to support reopening the government. Lead Art: Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) speaks with reporters as she arrives for a Senate Republican Conference meeting at the U.S. Capitol on the 38th day of a government shutdown, Nov. 7, 2025. | Francis Chung/POLITICO http://dlvr.it/TP9QmP