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Late Sen. John Warner, R-Va., once said to me that “we don’t do a lot in Congress. But when we do it, we do it all at once.”
That is kind of where we find the House of Representatives these days.
Wednesday is the penultimate day in the House before the August recess. In fact, the House may not be here much at all until after the election.
So that’s why the House is trying to cram EVERYTHING in right now.
HOUSE GOP VOTES TO PUNT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN BATTLE TO AFTER NOVEMBER MIDTERMS
The Capitol is seen in Washington, Friday morning, Dec. 14, 2018, after Congress adjourned until next week. Congress is racing to avoid a partial government shutdown over President Donald Trump’s border. But you wouldn’t know it by the schedule. Lawmakers are away until next week. The ball is in Trump’s court, both sides say. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Here is the laundry list of major items:
A stopgap government funding bill known as a CR. That’s short for continuing resolution. Then there’s the annual defense policy bill. The Senate just blocked that a few weeks ago. There’s “Reconciliation 3.0” which deals with money for Iran, agriculture and an effort to approve the SAVE America Act. House Republicans really want Reconciliation 3.0 before the midterms. They desperately need a major legislative achievement to hang their hats on. Particularly since the One Big Beautiful Bill was last year. Polling on that bill isn’t terribly rosy. Part of the mix is the SAVE America Act. It requires proof of citizenship in order to vote. And there’s a plan to ban Congressional stock trades.
Whew.
So let’s do a deep dive into each of these individual areas.
We begin with what the House approved late Tuesday night. The House passed a stopgap spending bill, renewing all funding at current levels to avoid a fall shutdown in October. The bill would run through Dec. 4.
Fiscal conservatives liked the bill because it “kind of” saves money by simply renewing the current spending. By nature, these temporary bills do just that. They don’t tack on new spending. So – in a way – that kind of holds the fiscal bottom line.
But looming over everything is the touchstone of the GOP’s agenda. That’s the SAVE America Act. The House plans to advance a budget framework and prospectively include the SAVE America Act later on. The Senate must also adopt the same framework so it can use the special budget reconciliation process – which is immune from filibusters – and eventually take on the same measure. But the House and Senate can’t get to the meat and potatoes of the bill without adopting the framework. That’s why the framework is crucial.
What’s in “Reconciliation 3.0?” House Republicans will likely dump the SAVE America Act into the actual bill later They will also load up the bill with tens of billions to cover the war in Iran and restock the Pentagon with munitions. Money for agriculture programs will be in there, too.
SENATE PLOTS PERMANENT END TO GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWNS WITH BIPARTISAN PUSH
But here’s the rub. House and Senate Republicans aren’t on the same page. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., says his body will likely consider the House-approved government funding plan in the next couple of weeks. But that needs 60 votes and is subject to a filibuster. Most Democrats will reject the House’s interim spending plan since they weren’t involved in drafting it.
But that’s where Reconciliation 3.0 comes in.
“We will hold that, subject to obviously, being able to move a continuing resolution to fund the government. It’s a possibility, that if necessary, we could pull that budget resolution passed by the House and use it to fund government,” said Thune when pressed by yours truly yesterday.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., speaks during the Senate Republicans’ news conference in the Ohio Clock Corridor in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
In other words, the Senate won’t take up the House’s Reconciliation 3.0 plan any time soon. Many Senate Republicans have been cool to another reconciliation plan from the get go. But Thune knows Senate Democrats will balk at the House’s stopgap spending bill. So he may use the reconciliation package to bypass Democrats and fund the government this fall.
Remember that reconciliation is NOT subject to a filibuster. Thus, 60 votes are unnecessary.
However, this is something of a negotiating tactic by Thune. He knows Democrats don’t want Republicans to pass their own spending plan via budget reconciliation. He also believes it’s a bad precedent to resort to reconciliation to green light appropriations bills to keep the government open. So, he will hold the reconciliation ball for now.
This means that money to plus-up depleted programs and pay for the war in Iran is stalled for months. Maybe until at least December. That could be a problem at the Pentagon if the conflict drifts on.
The defense bill is an interesting legislative creature this year. That’s because Congress usually approves it on a bipartisan basis. Not this year. In fact, Senate Democrats blocked consideration of the measure. Iran looms large over this year’s defense measure. Also, House Republicans are tacking the SAVE America Act to this measure as well.
Finally, the House plans to vote on a separate bill to ban its Members from trading stocks. Congress passed – and President Obama signed into law – the STOCK Act 14 years ago. That law prohibits lawmakers and aides from using “inside information” collected on the job to play the market.
However, today’s bill goes a step further. It outright prohibits House Members from trading stocks.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., opposes this version of the bill. That’s because he wants a stock ban to apply across all of government. But that’s not what the House is poised to tackle.
Just getting here has been a major legislative lift for the House Republican majority. A crew of recalcitrant House Republicans locked up the floor for weeks, blocking colleagues from considering a host of unrelated bills. Much of it was a protest about sending the SAVE America Act to the Senate. A little bit of it focused on a promise by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to consider a plan to make President Trump’s border security plans permanent.
TRUMP INTERVENES AS HOUSE GOP REVOLT PUTS SAVE AMERICA ACT AT CENTER OF SPENDING SHOWDOWN
President Donald Trump addresses reporters at the White House. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
Upset Republicans demonstrated much of their insubordination to GOP leaders on a procedural vote called “the rule.” The House must first debate and approve a “rule” in order to bring most bills to the floor.
In another Congressional universe, rule votes were quotidian, administrative matters. But not here. This is where a small group of rebels flexed their muscles and often took down “rules,” thus preventing the House from ever considering underlying bills.
The House witnessed only 11 rules fall between the late 1980s – under the leadership of late House Speaker Tom Foley, D-Wash., – to Johnson. But the House has defeated a staggering nine rules since Johnson clasped the gavel in the fall of 2023.
So this is an especially ambitious period in the House. Money for the Iran war and SAVE America Act swing in the balance. And if you’re wanting to understand what Congress may face this fall, this week’s action will give you a clue.
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It is messy. It is confusing. It is difficult. But it is all at once.
As John Warner might say, it’s about the only way that Congress rolls.
Chad Pergram currently serves as Chief Congressional Correspondent for FOX News Channel (FNC). He joined the network in September 2007 and is based out of Washington, D.C.
