Senate Appropriations Committee Republicans are trudging ahead next week with FY2027 funding markups — with or without Democrats.
After GOP appropriators scrapped the three markups planned for Thursday, they’re aiming to get back on track next week. This comes as Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and the panel’s ranking member Patty Murray (Wash.) remain billions of dollars apart on a topline figure for all 12 annual spending bills.
Both sides are digging in, which will make it challenging to reach a bipartisan agreement or avoid a continuing resolution by the Sept. 30 funding deadline.
It’s unclear whether Senate Democrats will support the appropriations bills during the markups without a topline number. President Donald Trump wants to boost defense spending to $1.5 trillion, but Democrats won’t go along with that without an increase in domestic spending.
“We do not have an agreement on the topline,” Murray said when asked if Democrats would support any of the bills heading for a markup.
Murray noted that she hasn’t agreed to the subcommittee allocations Collins has given out. Collins countered that she doesn’t need Murray’s approval. The lack of agreement, though, shows Democrats may not support the individual bills.
Collins told us it would be a “strange choice” if Democrats didn’t agree to the bills because they’ve been “fully involved drafting the subcommittee bills.” A Democratic committee aide rebuffed that assertion and said it’s unfortunate Republicans have decided to move forward without bipartisan agreement.
“I don’t think they really want to end up in a continuing resolution,” Collins said.
Pushing ahead. Senate Republican appropriators plan to try to markup the FY2027 Commerce-Justice-Science, Legislative Branch and Agriculture-FDA bills next week, according to multiple sources familiar with the schedule.
Those bills were originally on deck for markups on Thursday, but Collins postponed the meeting due to Republican concerns about Trump’s “anti-weaponization” fund. Democrats were planning to push amendments regarding potential payouts to alleged victims of wrongful actions by the Justice Department. The administration now says it is abandoning the fund.
Senate appropriators could also markup the FY2027 Military Construction-VA and Interior-Environment bills next week. Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.), the author of the MilCon bill, said his markup is still on schedule.
Boozman said he’s been working on making a bipartisan bill, but he acknowledged that Democrats may not agree to any funding bills without a topline agreement. MilCon-VA is typically one of the least controversial and smallest appropriations bills.
“The question is, will they support any bill?” Boozman said.
Across the Capitol: House GOP appropriators held full committee markups on Wednesday of two FY2027 spending bills — Interior and THUD (Transportation, Housing and Urban Development). The bills passed on party-line votes. GOP appropriators will continue with subcommittee and full committee markups on Friday and next week, despite the lack of a spending deal.
