Late last week, the Senate passed a modified version of the government funding minibus, H.R. 7148, that passed the House the week before. The Senate-modified bill includes full fiscal year (FY) 2026 funding for five appropriations bills, including Labor-US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), along with the health extenders and additional health provisions. The legislation separates funding for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for FY 2026 and instead provides a two-week continuing resolution to fund the agency while negotiations continue regarding changes demanded by Democratic lawmakers in response to the events that have unfolded in Minnesota.
Because the Senate modified the bill, it must go back to the House for final passage before going to President Trump’s desk. Funding for the remaining appropriations bills expired January 30, 2026, so we are now in a partial shutdown that includes HHS. It is hoped that it will be a short shutdown. The House Rules Committee meets today at 4 pm EST to consider a rule to bring up the Senate changes to H.R. 7148, and a floor vote is expected tomorrow, February 3, 2026. Speaker Johnson is projecting optimism. He was forced to bring the bill up under a rule, instead of through a suspension of the rules, because of Democratic opposition to using the suspension calendar. That means he’ll need near unanimity from his caucus on the rule vote.
Passing the rule on the floor will be the first challenge before the House votes on the actual bill. Once newly elected Christian Menefee (D-TX) is sworn in (which is anticipated to occur today), Speaker Johnson only has a one-vote margin. Democrats are not the only ones with concerns about the bill: some House Republicans, notably from the House Freedom Caucus, do not want to open up DHS funding for renegotiations after the House previously passed full FY 2026 funding for the agency. If the rule appears to fall short of the required votes, some Democrats potentially may support it so that the package can move forward to a vote in the House. If the rule passes, it is widely anticipated that the bill will as well. If the bill passes and the partial shutdown ends, debate will continue this month on DHS funding, and there could be extensions of short-term continuing resolutions on that front.
Health committees this week will continue discussing healthcare fraud. A Senate Judiciary Committee hearing will focus specifically on fraud in Minnesota, while the House Energy and Commerce Committee will broadly discuss fraud in Medicare and Medicaid. National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Jay Bhattacharya will testify at the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on how to modernize the NIH. Discussion will likely also focus on how the NIH is approaching multi-year funding and indirect costs.
Government funding lapsed on Friday, triggering a partial shutdown. In this week’s Healthcare Preview, Debbie Curtis and Rodney Whitlock join Julia Grabo to discuss what the House of Representatives must do to reopen the government.
