FY 2026 Appropriations Status Update

June 26, 2025

To date, the House Appropriations Committee has passed five of the 12 FY 2026 Appropriations bills, including those that fund the Departments of Agriculture, Defense, and Homeland Security as well as the FDA and CFTC, most of which have significant funding cuts or fail to provide necessary resources. Additional bills will be marked up in the House and Senate next month.
 
NTEU-represented agencies would receive the following under the bills:
 
Agriculture/FNS: The Committee cut funding for USDA by $807 million while at the same time making significant changes in the administration of SNAP.  There does not seem to be a coherent plan as to how they plan for how staff will handle these changes.
 
CFTC: The Committee bill provides $335 million for CFTC, a cut of $20 million below the 2025 level and $75 million below the President’s request. CFTC faces increasing cybersecurity threats while it regulates a multi-trillion dollar derivatives market that American farmers and businesses rely on to manage market risk. This gutting of CFTC at a time of increasing market uncertainty for American producers endangers the American economy. 
 
Defense: The Committee bill provides $831.5 billion, which is equal to current funding levels and $1.3 billion above the administration’s fiscal year 2026 request. However, the bill directs the Department to determine $7.75 billion in cuts, jeopardizing funding for all non-intelligence programs. The bill also calls for the reduction of almost 45,000 civilian, full-time equivalents to capture Workforce Acceleration and Recapitalization Initiative efforts and supports cuts to vital civilian positions in support of DOGE.
 
FDA: The Committee bill provides $3.5 billion in discretionary funding, $322 million below the 2025 level. Total funding for FDA, including revenue from appropriated user fees, is $6.8 billion. The FDA has already wasted large amounts of money by firing employees and then, realizing they are doing essential work, re-hiring them. During consideration of the bill, problematic ideas like doing overseas inspections by satellite and AI were raised as ways to manage the budget cuts.
 
Homeland Security: The Committee bill provides funding to hire 450 new CBP Officers, far short of the 6,000 needed per the latest Workload Staffing Model and insufficient to address the expected retirement wave in 2028. The bill also provides an additional $2 million to expand department-wide workforce wellness and suicide prevention efforts bringing the total to $84 million for this program since its inception in 2022. 
 
Starving agencies of the resources needed to meet their missions hurts the American public who rely on essential government services in addition to the dedicated employees who have dedicated their careers to public service. We must all continue to fight for additional funding for our agencies. Click here to urge your members of Congress to ensure agencies have the funding and resources they need to serve the American people. 
 
Doreen P. Greenwald
National President