Making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2027, and for other purposes.

Overview

Division A is the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2027. It is a short-term stopgap that keeps most of the federal government running at fiscal year 2026 funding rates and under fiscal year 2026 rules. It is not a full-year budget for one department. It covers the major appropriations bills—from Agriculture and Defense through Veterans Affairs, State Department programs, and Transportation and Housing—until regular 2027 spending bills become law or the stopgap expires.

Total Spending

No total dollar amount is stated in this division. Section 101 appropriates “such amounts as may be necessary” at the rate for operations in the fiscal year 2026 appropriations acts. Spending is available only until the earlier of a regular 2027 appropriation, a 2027 bill that drops the activity, or December 11, 2026. Because this is a rate, not a new full-year total, the text does not show how many dollars will actually be spent during that window.

Key Funding Areas

Most accounts simply continue at last year’s rate. The text does name a smaller set of dollar figures, mostly as caps or add-ons:

• Navy shipbuilding cost increases: up to $2.612 billion combined — authority to use continued Navy shipbuilding funds for prior-year cost growth on carriers, destroyers, submarines, amphibious ships, oilers, and related programs. Each line is a “not to exceed” cap (for example, up to $566.5 million for the 2021 Columbia-class program and up to $561.1 million for the 2019 Virginia-class program), not a guarantee that the full amount will be spent.
• Defense-wide National Security Systems: up to $2.853 billion — continued Defense-wide procurement funds may be used for these systems, again as a cap.
• Indian Health Service, services: $75.8 million rate for operations, in addition to the continued 2026 rate — staffing and operating facilities opened, renovated, or expanded in fiscal years 2022, 2026, and 2027.
• Indian Health Service, facilities: $8.3 million additional rate for operations — same purpose, for facility costs.
• HUD flexible-subsidy loan relief: $6,258,174.91, available through September 30, 2029 — paying off certain older HUD housing loans for qualifying nonprofit properties. A separate rescission of $4,258,174.91 from an older HUD account is also in the text.
• Congressional death payments: $174,000 to the widow of Representative David A. Scott of Georgia, and $174,000 to the heir of Senator Lindsey O. Graham of South Carolina.
• CALFED Bay-Delta: the dollar figure in existing law is raised from $32.6 million to $40 million during this period.
• Programs continued at the 2026 rate, with extra flexibility but no new dollar total in the text: WIC; the Commodity Supplemental Food Program; farm ownership loans; Small Business Administration loan guarantees; FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund; wildfire suppression at Interior and the Forest Service; Essential Air Service; 2030 Census preparation; NOAA’s GeoXO weather-satellite schedule; FBI work tied to the 2028 Olympics; and U.S. Marshals judicial security.

Notable Provisions

• The stopgap ends on December 11, 2026, or sooner if regular appropriations are enacted.
• Agencies generally may not start new projects or, at the Defense Department, start new production or raise production rates above the 2026 level.
• Agencies must take the most limited funding action needed to keep existing work going, and they generally may not front-load grants to states, other countries, or grantees.
• Civilian pay may be funded at the rate needed to avoid furloughs, but only after non-personnel administrative costs are reduced or deferred.
• Entitlements and other mandatory payments, including food-assistance activities under the Food and Nutrition Act, continue at current-law levels. Payments due near the first of a month can continue for up to 30 days after the stopgap ends.
• No cost-of-living adjustment for Members of Congress during this period.
• Several authorities that would otherwise expire are extended through the stopgap date, including livestock mandatory reporting, the National Flood Insurance Program, and a TSA-related provision through fiscal year 2027.
• The District of Columbia may spend local funds at the rate in its own fiscal year 2027 local budget.
• Specified sections of the 2026 bills are not continued, including parts of the Commerce-Justice-Science, Homeland Security, Interior, and Labor-HHS-Education acts, and the last proviso on Election Assistance Commission election-security grants. This text does not say what those excluded sections did.
• Some old, unobligated balances are rescinded and reappropriated for the same purposes through September 30, 2027, including broadband middle-mile funds, certain highway funds, FAA research funds, homeless-assistance grants, and fair-housing funds. The dollar amounts are whatever remains unobligated; they are not stated here.
• HUD may use certain older voucher balances to prevent families from losing rental assistance in the 2026 funding cycle, and emergency housing vouchers under lease as of September 30, 2026, are folded into that account’s rules.
• Certain directed set-asides in the 2026 Transportation bill—including language tied to $927.2 million for highway infrastructure and $129 million at NHTSA—are treated as struck for purposes of this stopgap.
• Older transit capital-grant money stays available for payment of valid obligations through fiscal year 2031.
• Energy Department nuclear-weapons and cleanup projects may keep going so named projects are not shut down or demobilized, with notice to the Appropriations Committees within three days of using that authority.
• Military construction funds may be used for unaccompanied housing at the Medical Education Training Complex at Joint Base San Antonio, with limits on which prior emergency or earmarked balances can be tapped.
• Interior may take over remaining work of the Office of Navajo and Hopi Indian Relocation.
• Treasury may fund operations to host the G7 Financial Summit and related activities.
• A proposed revision of the federal grant rule known as the Uniform Guidance may not be issued, finalized, or take effect through December 11, 2026.
• The Office of Management and Budget must give the Appropriations Committees a list of continued rescissions by November 20, 2026.

Who Benefits

Federal employees and the public programs they run are the broad beneficiaries, because the bill is meant to prevent a lapse in funding and furloughs. More specific groups include WIC participants and people served by commodity food programs; farmers seeking ownership loans; small businesses seeking SBA-backed loans; disaster survivors relying on FEMA; communities facing wildfires; tribal communities served by newly opened or expanded Indian Health Service facilities; families using HUD rental vouchers, including emergency housing vouchers; people in flood-prone areas covered by the National Flood Insurance Program; rural communities that depend on Essential Air Service; and military housing needs at Joint Base San Antonio. Shipbuilders and the Navy’s prior-year ship programs are the focus of the largest named dollar caps.

Plain English Summary

This is a temporary “keep the lights on” bill, not a new budget. If Congress has not finished the regular 2027 spending bills, this measure lets federal agencies keep operating at about last year’s pace from the start of the fiscal year until December 11, 2026. It blocks most brand-new projects, tries to prevent federal furloughs, and keeps benefits such as food assistance, disaster aid, flood insurance, farm and small-business loans, and housing vouchers from stopping abruptly. A few exceptions have real dollar figures—especially Navy shipbuilding cost overruns, up to about $2.6 billion, and defense-wide security systems, up to about $2.9 billion—but the bill never adds those up into one grand total, and most of the government simply continues at the old rate until a full budget, or the December deadline, arrives.

Overview

Division B does not fund a single department. It is a package of short-term extensions that keeps existing laws, programs, and fee authorities from expiring. Most of those deadlines are pushed to December 11, 2026. A few trade programs are extended further, into 2028, and customs fees are extended a few months into 2032.

Total Spending

This division does not set an overall appropriation. It mostly continues authority that already exists rather than writing new spending checks.

The only new dollar amount in the text is $21.4 million in extra Medicaid funding for the Northern Mariana Islands. Separately, the Medicare Improvement Fund is reduced by $21 million, from $2.062 billion to $2.041 billion.

Key Funding Areas

• Northern Mariana Islands Medicaid disaster relief: $21.4 million — extra federal Medicaid money for the Northern Mariana Islands for the period October 1, 2025, through September 30, 2026, available until spent.
• Medicare Improvement Fund: reduced from $2.062 billion to $2.041 billion — a $21 million cut to a reserve account often used later for Medicare legislation. No new program is created.
• United States Grain Standards Act: no new dollar amount — keeps federal grain inspection, weighing, and related fee authorities going, generally through December 11, 2026, with some limits and authorizations applied through 2027.
• Food for Peace Act: no new dollar amount — extends the law that authorizes U.S. international food aid from a December 31, 2023 end date to December 11, 2026.
• African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA): no new dollar amount — extends duty-free trade preferences for eligible sub-Saharan African countries, including apparel rules, from 2026 to 2028.
• Haiti Economic Lift Program: no new dollar amount — extends special trade preferences for Haitian goods from 2026 to 2028.
• Customs user fees and merchandise processing fees: no appropriation; these are fees the government collects — collection authority is extended from December 31, 2031, to March 31, 2032.
• Toxic Substances Control Act fees: no appropriation — EPA’s authority to charge fees that help pay for chemical-safety reviews runs through December 11, 2026.
• Patent and Trademark Office fee-setting authority: no appropriation — USPTO may keep setting its own fees through December 11, 2026.
• Technology Modernization Fund: no new dollar amount — the fund and its board, which finance updates to federal computer systems, are extended from September 30, 2026, to December 11, 2026.

Notable Provisions

• Common end date. Grain standards, Food for Peace, the Defense Production Act, chemical-fee authority, cybersecurity information-sharing, federal cybersecurity authorities, Homeland Security joint task forces, the Technology Modernization Fund, USPTO fee-setting, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and a passport-fee provision are all tied to December 11, 2026. Several of those had been set to end on September 30, 2026; this adds a little over two months.
• Longer trade extensions. AGOA and the Haiti Economic Lift Program are extended two years, through 2028, not just to December 2026. That covers general trade benefits plus specific apparel and third-country fabric rules.
• Older programs revived or carried forward. Forest Service participation in the ACES conservation-worker program is extended from an October 1, 2023 date to December 11, 2026. Food for Peace is extended from a December 31, 2023 date. A Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative passport-fee date in current law (September 30, 2010) is changed to December 11, 2026.
• Defense Production Act. The 1950 law that lets the government prioritize defense-related production is extended from September 30, 2026, to December 11, 2026.
• Cybersecurity. Authorities in the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 and the Federal Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2015 are extended from September 30, 2026, to December 11, 2026. Homeland Security joint-task-force authority gets the same extension.
• Hemp-definition limit. Until December 11, 2026, recent changes made by section 781 of Public Law 119–37 to the hemp definition in the Agricultural Marketing Act apply only to two specified product categories in that definition, not more broadly. The text does not spell out those product types beyond the statutory cross-references.
• Budget scorekeeping waiver. The costs or savings of this division, and of every division that follows it in the bill, are not to be entered on statutory or Senate pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) scorecards, and are not to be counted for certain appropriations and deficit-control estimates. That is a procedural rule for the rest of the bill, not a spending program.

Who Benefits

• Grain handlers, exporters, and the Agriculture Department, which rely on continued grain inspection and weighing authority.
• U.S. conservation programs and older workers in the Forest Service ACES program, which places experienced workers in conservation technical jobs.
• People in countries that receive U.S. food aid under Food for Peace, and the agencies that run that aid.
• Businesses in eligible African countries and Haiti, which keep preferential access to the U.S. market, especially for apparel.
• Residents of the Northern Mariana Islands, who get $21.4 million more in Medicaid funding tied to disaster relief.
• Chemical companies and EPA reviewers, because TSCA fee authority continues to fund chemical-safety work.
• Importers and travelers, through continued customs user fees, merchandise processing fees, and a passport-fee provision.
• Federal cybersecurity programs, patent and trademark users, and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, whose legal authority is kept in place for a short additional period.

Plain English Summary

This part of the bill is less about new spending and more about not letting a pile of existing laws lapse. Congress is hitting “snooze” on grain inspections, food aid, defense-production powers, chemical fees, cybersecurity sharing, patent fees, religious-freedom monitoring, and several other authorities, mostly until December 11, 2026. Trade breaks for Africa and Haiti last longer, through 2028, and customs fees keep being collected a few months further into 2032. The one clear new check is $21.4 million in extra Medicaid money for the Northern Mariana Islands. To help balance the books on paper, a Medicare reserve fund is trimmed by $21 million, and the bill tells budget scorekeepers not to count this division—or the divisions after it—on the usual pay-as-you-go ledgers.

Overview

Division C is the Surface Transportation Extension Act of 2026. It is a short-term extension of federal highway, transit, and related surface transportation programs—not a new multi-year transportation law and not a division that lists new dollar line items. It keeps existing program rules in place from October 1, 2026, through December 11, 2026, and authorizes a pro-rated slice of fiscal year 2026 funding so those programs do not shut off when current authority expires on September 30, 2026.

Total Spending

No total dollar amount appears in this division. Funding is set as an “extension fraction” of each program’s fiscal year 2026 authorization: the number of days in the extension period divided by 365.

The extension period runs from October 1, 2026, through December 11, 2026 (72 days if both dates are counted). That fraction is 72/365, or about 19.7 percent of a full year. Actual dollars depend on the fiscal year 2026 authorizations in earlier laws (including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), which are not restated here.

Key Funding Areas

• Highway Account of the Highway Trust Fund: For each highway program funded from this account in fiscal year 2026, fiscal year 2027 authority equals the extension fraction of the fiscal year 2026 amount. Money is distributed and limited the same way as in fiscal year 2026.
• Mass Transit Account of the Highway Trust Fund: Same pro-rated treatment for each transit program funded from this account in fiscal year 2026.
• General-fund surface transportation programs: For programs authorized outside the Highway Trust Fund, the division authorizes not less than the extension fraction of the fiscal year 2026 amount.
• Obligation limits: Spending caps on Highway Trust Fund programs are also cut to the same fraction of the fiscal year 2026 limits.
• Certain unspent highway funds: Highway Trust Fund money (other than the Mass Transit Account) authorized by section 11101 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for programs that are not formula-apportioned under 23 U.S.C. § 104(b) or the railway-highway crossing program under § 130(f), and that would otherwise expire on September 30, 2026, stays available until September 30, 2027.
• Appalachian Regional Commission: Existing authorization dates tied to 2026 are treated as 2027 during the extension, so those programs continue.
• Sport Fish Restoration and Boating programs: Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act dates tied to 2026 are treated as 2027 during the extension.
• Trust-fund spending authority: Authority to spend from the Highway Trust Fund, the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, and the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund is extended from October 1, 2026, to December 12, 2026.

Notable Provisions

• Programs and rules in a long list of prior laws—including the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the FAST Act, MAP–21, SAFETEA–LU, and core highway and transit statutes—that would expire after September 30, 2026, continue through December 11, 2026.
• This is a stopgap of a little over two months, not a full reauthorization. New policy is not written; old law is carried forward by reference.
• The usual notice to states of highway apportionments under 23 U.S.C. § 104(e)(2) does not apply for fiscal year 2027. The division does not spell out a replacement notice process.
• Program extension ends December 11, 2026, while trust-fund expenditure authority runs through December 12, 2026.
• Formula highway apportionments and the § 130(f) rail-crossing program are excluded from the extra year of availability for otherwise-lapsing funds. Other covered Highway Trust Fund highway programs are included.

Who Benefits

State departments of transportation, public transit agencies, and the contractors and workers who build and maintain roads, bridges, and transit systems are the main beneficiaries, because federal highway and transit money and rules stay in force. Appalachian communities served by the Appalachian Regional Commission, and sport-fish restoration and boating programs funded through the related trust fund, also keep their authority. Cleanup work tied to the Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund can continue to draw on that fund through December 12, 2026.

Plain English Summary

Congress is hitting “pause and continue” on the federal programs that pay for highways, bridges, and transit. Instead of passing a new long-term transportation bill, this division keeps today’s rules going from October 1, 2026, until December 11, 2026, and allows only about one-fifth of a normal year’s funding—matching those roughly 72 days. It also keeps the Highway Trust Fund and two related trust funds legally able to pay out through December 12, 2026, extends Appalachian and sport-fishing program dates, and gives some already-approved non-formula highway money an extra year before it expires. The text does not name a grand total in dollars; the dollar amount is whatever share of last year’s authorized levels matches the length of this short extension.

Overview

This division does not fund the Department of Veterans Affairs as a whole. It is a short-term “extenders” package: it keeps a set of existing VA health, benefits, housing, and oversight authorities from expiring on September 30, 2026, and pushes most of them to December 11, 2026. A few programs also get a partial-year dollar amount for that same window (October 1 through December 11, 2026).

Total Spending

There is no single department-wide total in this division. The only new dollar amounts written into the text are partial-year sums for six programs. Added together, those amounts are $136,740,825 for October 1–December 11, 2026 (72 days, about 20% of a year).

Most sections only change an expiration date. They do not state what those authorities cost. Funding for those programs, if any, would come from other laws or from VA’s regular budget, which is not in this division.

The partial-year figures line up with a 72/365 pro-rata share of a full year. Where the bill already states an annual amount, that match is exact (rounded to the nearest dollar).

Key Funding Areas

Amounts below are what this division actually writes in for October 1–December 11, 2026, unless noted.

• Supportive services for very low-income veteran families in permanent housing: $130,191,781 — the largest item by far. Financial assistance so very low-income veteran families can stay in permanent housing. The bill does not state a full-year figure here; $130.2 million is the 72-day amount (mathematically consistent with about $660 million for a full year, which is not written in this text).
• Adaptive sports programs for disabled veterans and service members: $3,156,165 — grants and related authority for adaptive sports. Again, only the 72-day amount is stated (consistent with about $16 million for a full year, not stated here).
• Mental health support for family caregivers of veterans: $1,972,603 for the 72-day period, on top of $10 million already authorized for each of fiscal years 2025 and 2026 — grants or contracts for caregiver mental health support.
• Grants for homeless veterans with special needs: $986,302 for the 72-day period, on top of $5 million for each fiscal year 2007 through 2026.
• Rural Access Network for Growth Enhancement (RANGE) program (Sgt. Ketchum Rural Veterans Mental Health Act): $236,713 for the 72-day period, on top of $1.2 million for each of fiscal years 2022 through 2026 — rural veterans’ mental health outreach.
• Homeless women veterans and homeless veterans with children reintegration grants: $197,261 for the 72-day period, on top of $1 million for each fiscal year 2011 through 2026.

Notable Provisions

Almost every change is the same mechanical edit: strike “September 30, 2026” and insert “December 11, 2026.” That is a roughly 10-week extension, not a new program.

Health care (Title I) — authorities extended to December 11, 2026, with no new dollar amount in this text:

• VA may keep collecting copayments for hospital care and nursing home care.
• VA must keep providing nursing home care to certain veterans with service-connected disabilities.
• Staff Sergeant Parker Gordon Fox Suicide Prevention Grant Program.
• Reimbursement of ambulance costs for certain rural veterans.
• Incentive program for sharing health care resources between VA and the Department of Defense.
• Plus the RANGE and caregiver mental-health funding noted above.

Benefits (Title II) — date extensions only:

• VA may keep a regional office in the Republic of the Philippines.
• Veterans can keep getting educational assistance restored when a school closes or is disapproved.

Housing (Title III):

• Treatment and rehabilitation authority for seriously mentally ill and homeless veterans, including extra services at certain locations.
• Housing assistance for homeless veterans.
• Advisory Committee on Homeless Veterans.
• Help adapting a family member’s home when a disabled veteran is living there temporarily.
• Specially adapted housing assistive technology grant program.
• Plus the three housing dollar amounts listed above (very low-income families, special-needs homeless grants, and women veterans / veterans with children).

Other matters (Title IV):

• VA may keep transporting people to and from VA facilities.
• VA Inspector General subpoena authority.
• Advisory Committee on Minority Veterans.
• Vendee loan program (VA financing related to homes VA has taken back).
• Authority to transfer real property.
• Adaptive sports funding noted above.
• Plot allowances are the one date that does not match the rest: the cutoff moves from October 1, 2026, to December 12, 2026 (one day later than the December 11 date used everywhere else).

No new programs are created. The text does not include policy restrictions, funding cuts, or changes to who is eligible.

Who Benefits

• Veterans using VA health care, including those who pay copays, need nursing home care tied to a service-connected disability, or need rides or ambulance reimbursement in rural areas.
• Veterans at risk of suicide, through the Parker Gordon Fox grant program, and rural veterans through the RANGE mental health program.
• Family caregivers of veterans, through mental health support grants.
• Homeless veterans, veterans with serious mental illness, veterans with special needs, and homeless women veterans and veterans with children.
• Very low-income veteran families trying to stay in permanent housing — this is where most of the money in this division goes.
• Disabled veterans and disabled service members, through adaptive sports and specially adapted housing help.
• Student veterans whose schools close or lose approval.
• Veterans in the Philippines served by the VA regional office there, and families using burial plot allowances.
• VA and DoD staff who share medical resources, and the VA Inspector General, whose subpoena power is kept in place.

Plain English Summary

This slice of the bill is a short bridge, not the VA’s main budget. A bunch of veterans’ programs were set to run out on September 30, 2026 — suicide-prevention grants, rural mental health, caregiver support, homeless-veteran housing help, specially adapted housing, a VA office in the Philippines, the Inspector General’s subpoena power, and others. Congress would keep those authorities going until December 11, 2026 (one burial benefit until December 12). For a handful of programs it also writes a partial check for those 72 days, totaling about $136.7 million. Almost all of that — about $130.2 million — is help for very low-income veteran families to stay housed. Everything else in the dollar list is under a few million for that same short window. If you want the VA’s full-year budget, it is not in this division.