September Outlook

Three deadlines, one CR, and a midterm election in November

Congress returned from its August recess facing three major expirations on September 30: government funding for fiscal year 2027, federal surface transportation authority, and remaining farm bill programs not reauthorized by last year's reconciliation law. Two of the three are now off the September calendar. The continuing resolution enacted September 1 extends government funding and federal surface transportation authority to December 11. The farm bill is the deadline that still lands on September 30. The House came back August 31; the Senate did not return until September 14. Both chambers are scheduled to be largely out of session for most of October, with Election Day on November 3, which leaves roughly three working weeks of floor time before the campaign takes over.

Government funding: a CR to December 11, and twelve bills still unfinished

The most immediate question — whether the government shuts down on October 1 — has been answered. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) struck a deal on a bipartisan continuing resolution to extend current funding levels through December 11, giving appropriators roughly ten additional weeks to finish negotiating the twelve FY2027 spending bills. Just before leaving for the August recess, the upper chamber passed the CR by a 90-6 margin. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer endorsed the Collins-Murray CR as "a responsible path forward that allows continued bipartisan negotiations on a budget that delivers for American families." Murray called it "a much-improved CR" and noted that the Senate version includes provisions the House-passed CR did not — and explicitly rejects what she described as the administration's supplemental defense spending requests. The House passed its own CR on July 22 by a vote of 220-205, with only six Democrats crossing over. House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) had opposed that version as "incomplete and inadequate," calling for bipartisan, bicameral negotiations before the Senate produced its version. After the Senate CR advanced, DeLauro said it "makes important progress and includes critical provisions Democrats have pushed for," specifically citing a delay in an OMB regulation that would have concentrated grantmaking authority in political appointees, and the restoration of language restricting Border Patrol funding transfers. The two chambers were running different versions, with House Republican hard-liners using the funding fight to pressure leadership on unrelated priorities, including the SAVE America Act election overhaul. The Senate's version is the one that became law: Congress cleared the Collins-Murray CR on September 1, extending current funding levels — and with them federal surface transportation authority — through December 11. Democrats in both chambers were unified around the Collins-Murray framework, and the variable was whether House Republicans could hold together; the same question returns on December 11, with the twelve FY2027 bills still unfinished and most of the intervening weeks consumed by the campaign. Murray also flagged one unresolved issue: advanced appropriations provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law expire October 1. She sought to extend them in the CR negotiations; Republicans declined. That provision remains live as a Democratic demand heading into the fall.

The farm bill: Democrats are blocking it in committee

The Senate Agriculture Committee's markup of the Agricultural Act of 2026 — a $390 billion, five-year bill — failed on August 6 in a 10-11 vote, with every Democrat on the committee voting in opposition. Chairman John Boozman (R-AR) has indicated he will seek a bipartisan compromise that would unlock passage through his committee as well as obtain 60 votes to advance from the Senate floor after the recess. Committee Democrats’ central demand is a two-year delay on the SNAP cost-shift provisions enacted in last year's reconciliation law — provisions that have already caused more than 4 million people to lose food assistance and that will begin shifting additional costs to states in 2027. Boozman offered a one-year delay, negotiated directly with the White House, but Democrats held firm. An amendment for the additional year failed along party lines and carried an estimated $19 billion price tag. Democrats also sought to restore $2 billion in cuts to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and to add an audit of Agriculture Risk Coverage payments; both amendments failed. The Senate Agriculture Committee Democrats, in a joint statement after the House passed its version of the farm bill in May, were explicit: "Senate Democrats are committed to ensuring all states are treated equally by delaying the new SNAP cost shifts and addressing the needs of farm country." One notable additional wrinkle: mandatory country-of-origin labeling for beef passed the Senate Agriculture Committee 17-6, drawing support across party lines. That provision has bipartisan backing and could complicate the floor dynamic if leadership tries to strip it.

FISA and highway authority: one clock stopped, one question open

Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which authorizes targeted surveillance of foreign persons abroad, is also on the fall agenda. The House approved a 45-day extension before the August recess after failing to pass a longer reauthorization. Privacy advocates from both parties have pushed for a warrant requirement for data on Americans swept up in 702 collection. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has called a warrant requirement a nonstarter in the Senate. The Senate has not acted on it, which leaves the shape of a longer reauthorization — not a fixed fall deadline — as the live question. Federal surface transportation authority is no longer on the September 30 list. The September 1 CR extended it alongside government funding through December 11, removing the immediate risk to the highway and transit funding that states and localities depend on for project planning and contracting. What it does not do is produce a reauthorization. The authority now expires on the same December date as appropriations, which puts a multi-year surface transportation bill into the same year-end negotiation as the twelve spending bills, in a lame-duck session whose composition November will decide.

Late nights ahead, or an early exit?

Despite the strong Senate majority in support of the CR, the risk for vote-counting drama continues to come from the House Republican cloakroom. On the farm bill, Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) holds the key: the bill cannot reach 60 votes without Democratic support, and her stated price — a two-year SNAP delay rather than one — has not yet been met. On FISA, the warrant question remains the dividing line, with bipartisan pressure on both sides of it. With funding and highway authority pushed to December, the farm bill and FISA are what remain of the September calendar, and they compress into roughly three weeks of legislative time before the midterm campaign effectively ends floor action. Additionally, Congress could potentially take up pending cryptocurrency legislation, the CLARITY Act; the annual National Defense Authorization Act, college sports legislation, a Senate-passed Russia sanctions bill named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and a House-passed budget reconciliation bill that includes defense funding as well as the SAVE America Act, President Trump’s package of voting registration restrictions. Alternatively, a dysfunctional House majority could send Members home early, punting on expiring and must-do items. After November 3, a lame-duck session will determine what, if anything, carries over — and a changed majority composition would reset every one of these negotiations.