Posted on September 9, 2026
Just prior to the start of Labor Day weekend, members of the U.S. House of Representatives returned to Washington, D.C and passed the Senate’s version of a Continuing Resolution for FY27. By offering no changes to the Senate bill, it proceeded directly to the President for his signing on September 2nd. Members then returned to their District’s to continue campaigning for re-election this fall.
While this was the best possible outcome for the appropriations process in the short-term, the CR expires on December 11th and Congress will have to re-visit the appropriations process shortly after the mid-term elections. At that point, Congress will have to pass the appropriations bills or vote for another CR to a date after the new year, or through September 30th. Therefore, the agencies are only funded for the next four months and thus will be limited by the amount of work they are able to complete or initiate.
The good news for the waterway is that we received $42.433 million in FY26 compared with $32.825 million in the President’s budget for FY27 so work will continue under the CR at the higher FY26 level. However, we could receive additional funding for FY27 on top of the base amounts depending on which earmarks get approved in the final appropriations bill. Those decisions will be made after the election as the House and Senate will only be in session four and 14 days, respectively, between now and election day in November.
