The House of Representatives is scheduled to return from the annual August recess on Monday, August 31, without the Senate, which is staying in recess.

On the evening of Friday, August 28, the House Majority Leader announced the floor schedule for the upcoming week, which features the Senate-passed version of the stopgap continuing appropriations resolution (Senate Amendment to H.R. 6500). The schedule indicates that the “CR” may be brought up for quick debate and a vote as early as Tuesday, September 1.

There are five things that are important to know about the Senate Amendment to H.R. 6500:

1. It extends all appropriations made in the fiscal 2026 general appropriations acts (the ones enacted on November 12, 2025; January 23, 2026; and February 3, 2026) at their FY 2026 rates, through December 11. 2026;
2. It passed the Senate on August 8 by a vote of 90 to 6, which is as spectacular a level of bipartisan support for a spending bill as you are going to see in the current political climate;
3. The White House issued a statement saying “President Trump strongly opposes another futile Government shutdown. Every Member of Congress should support passage of this CR to keep the Government open as discussions on full-year appropriations continue.”
4. The Senate legislation has the strong support of the House GOP leadership and garnered a mostly-supportive statement from the head Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Rosa DeLauro (D-CT).
5. The Senate legislation does not extend the “advance appropriations” made by the Division J of the 2021 IIJA infrastructure law from the General Fund of the Treasury for fiscal years 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026, meaning that – all other things being equal – discretionary appropriations in FY 2027 will total about $64 billion less than in 2026, with the bulk of that reduction ($36.8 billion) coming at the Department of Transportation. (Rebecca Higgins’ article elsewhere in this week’s issue goes into much more detail of the potential cuts at USDOT.)

The Division J advances have been a slow-moving crisis for railroad and mass transit interests especially. Republicans on the House Appropriations Committee have made it crystal-clear for years that they have no interest in extending the Division J advances, in part because they weren’t consulted when Division J was written. And the transportation authorizing committees in both chambers have made it very clear that they are powerless to extend the money – it came from the Senate Appropriations Committee in 2021 and can only be extended by future legislation from the Appropriations Committees.

(Or, in theory, the authorizing committees could provide their own General Fund appropriations in a budget reconciliation bill, but that is a party leadership-driven process and currently a non-starter with Republicans.)

And the most important thing about the CR (any CR) is that some kind of CR is needed by September 30 to prevent another partial government shutdown. At present, neither party wants a shutdown, especially so close to the midterm elections, on the off chance that voters might blame them for the ridiculousness that ensues.

House leaders are bringing up the CR under the expedited “suspension of the rules” process, which prohibits any amendments from being offered but also requires a two-thirds vote of those present and voting in order to ensure passage. This exact legislation got 92.8 percent of those Senators present and voting, so getting 66.6 percent of the House doesn’t seem like an insurmountable hurdle.

Transportation interests may ask legislators to vote against the CR because of the Division J issue, but those legislators have to ask themselves, “what if we succeed in taking this bill down today?” If the current CR is defeated, there is no guarantee that Congress will actually be able to pass a different CR by September 30, and if a shutdown does take place, the House’s “no” voters could wind up being the only ones blamed by the electorate in November.

(Perhaps both parties could come together and negotiate something else over the next three weeks. But given the spectacular levels of legislative incompetence we have seen in Congress in the last two years, who’s willing to bet their political life on competence and good sense winning out now?)

There is one other issue that might affect the CR – hemp. For those interested, read this POLITICO article where the headline says it all: “Big hemp is betting Republicans roll over on ‘diet weed’ ban to avoid shutdown.” Perhaps the anti-hemp Republicans and the pro-Division-J Democrats could muster enough votes between them to deny the CR the necessary two-thirds margin this week. Or perhaps not.

Earlier this year, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a five-year surface transportation reauthorization bill that was based on the assumption that the Division J advance appropriations would not be repeated. That bill fully funds highways, mass transit, and safety programs out of the Highway Trust Fund at levels holding them harmless against the removal of the General Fund support from Division J. However, the reauthorization does not protect intercity rail, or the competitive grant programs in the Secretary’s office.

However, the House appears to be no closer to bringing the reauthorization bill up for a vote today than it was when they left for recess a month ago. The House Ways and Means Committee has not announced any actions on its portion of the legislation, without which the bill cannot proceed. The House Rules Committee has not announced an amendment deadline for the bill, which is the last step before a large bill usually goes to the floor. And there were no signs of committee staff working overtime over the recess, which they would be doing if floor activity were seen to be imminent.

If the shutoff of the Division J advances appears permanent, quick enactment of the pending reauthorization bill would remove the sting for state and local highway and mass transit stakeholders. But the expiration of Division J advances without enactment of a reauthorization bill increasing regular funding would result in real cuts to highway and mass transit funding for all states and transit agencies nationwide.