Division B — AUTHORIZING EXTENSIONS

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.