House Republicans moved two major fiscal year 2027 spending bills through full committee markup on Tuesday, racing to lock in spending cuts and avoid a repeat of this year's record 75-day government shutdown.
The House Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday on two of fiscal year 2027's most contentious spending packages, a Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies bill and a Department of Homeland Security appropriations measure, clearing both through full committee markup with the September 30 funding deadline ahead. The committee first saw both bills at the subcommittee level just four days earlier, on June 5, an accelerated pace that reflects a conscious Republican effort to prevent another partial government shutdown from taking shape in the fall.
The Labor, HHS, and Education measure sets total discretionary spending at $189.3 billion, according to the House Appropriations Committee, cutting $5.6 billion, or roughly 3 percent, from the fiscal year 2026 enacted level. Republicans framed that reduction as a continuation of the fiscal restraint they locked in during the FY2026 cycle, when they passed full-year appropriations that kept total spending below the level projected under the prior continuing resolution. The Homeland Security bill allocates $99.5 billion to the department, directing funds to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention operations and Customs and Border Protection, a priority the administration has pressed both through the regular appropriations process and separately through the reconciliation track.
Democrats on the committee made their opposition clear before the first gavel fell. Appropriations Ranking Member Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut said the Republican bills "do nothing to bring down the rising costs that confront American families each and every day," arguing that cutting health and education spending made economic hardship worse rather than better. Democrats specifically flagged proposed reductions at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Title I education grants, programs that channel federal dollars to schools serving low-income students. Committee Democrats accused Republicans of "hollowing out our health care system and destroying public education," according to committee statements released ahead of the markup.
Republicans dismissed those characterizations and returned to a core argument: the government must be funded, and starting early is not recklessness, it is responsibility. Committee Chairman Tom Cole of Oklahoma has said repeatedly that funding the government is "not an optional exercise," a line that carries particular weight after this year's shutdown experience. Moving a spending package from subcommittee to full committee in four days is an unusually aggressive pace, and it signals that Republican leaders want House floor votes, Senate negotiations, and any conference process wrapped up well before the end of the fiscal year.
The Shutdown That Set the Clock
The urgency behind Tuesday's vote has a specific origin. The Department of Homeland Security shutdown that began in February 2026 stretched 75 days before Congress resolved it in late April, according to Federal News Network and CBS News, making it the longest partial government shutdown in American history. Federal workers across DHS were required to work without pay for weeks, and deportation and enforcement operations were disrupted at a moment when the Trump administration had staked significant political capital on aggressive immigration enforcement. Republicans say the lesson is straightforward: get the work done before the deadline, not after.
Both bills still face a long road before they reach the President's desk. The full House must pass each measure, Senate negotiations will follow, and Democrats there are expected to push back hard on overall spending levels and proposed cuts to health and education programs. The Senate blocked a House-passed DHS funding bill earlier this year and triggered the record shutdown as a direct consequence. Whether Republicans can move quickly enough, find the votes needed to clear the Senate's 60-vote threshold, and hold their own conference together in the House will determine whether the fall brings another funding crisis or the stable, on-time appropriations process that has eluded Congress for years. Tuesday's markup is a meaningful step. The harder work lies ahead.
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