Senate Advances Funding Bill to Avoid Shutdown

The Senate voted 89–4 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed.

The U.S. Capitol on July 26, 2026. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times

The U.S. Senate voted on Aug. 3 to advance a stopgap funding bill that would keep the federal government funded through Dec. 11.

The Senate voted 89–4 to invoke cloture on the motion to proceed to HR 6500, which serves as the legislative vehicle for a continuing resolution.

“It is a strong, bipartisan piece of legislation, and I hope it will receive overwhelming support from both parties in the Senate,” Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told the Senate floor.

Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Rand Paul (R-Ky.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) were the only senators who voted no.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a floor speech on Aug. 3 that the bill would allow senators to negotiate a budget and avert a government shutdown.

“The CR released yesterday is a responsible pathway to do just that,” Schumer said of the continuing resolution. “The bill allows us to continue negotiating a budget that won’t leave working families behind.”

The leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier announced they had reached an agreement on the text of the stopgap funding bill.

The measure would keep the government funded at current levels through Dec. 11, giving Congress more time to negotiate full-year spending bills before the current fiscal year ends on Sept. 30.

The Senate bill follows the House’s passage of a separate stopgap measure on July 21 that would fund the government through Dec. 4. That bill passed 220–205, with six Democrats in favor. Thune had indicated that Senate Republicans were considering their own stopgap measure rather than taking up the House version.

The bill imposes limits on the Department of War, prohibiting it from starting new programs, increasing production rates, or initiating multi-year procurement.

It would allow spending above the default rate where needed to maintain certain programs, including the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children, among others.

In a July 31 floor speech, Thune said Americans have experienced two record-breaking government shutdowns in the past 10 months, and that the bill aims to prevent a third shutdown.

“We owe the American people some certainty here,” he said. “They should not have to be hoping and praying that, on September 30th, that the government will get funded and that government services will continue.”

The first government shutdown happened in October 2025 caused by budget deadlocks, which lasted for 43 days. The second was a partial shutdown affecting the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after Democratic lawmakers withheld support for a DHS funding bill over immigration enforcement policies.

Chase Smith contributed to this report.