House Appropriators Move Forward with First FY26 Spending Bills, Despite No Topline Funding Agreement – Take Action!

By Kim Johnson, NLIHC Senior Director of Policy 

House Appropriators are moving forward with the first batch of their 12 fiscal year (FY) 2026 spending bills, despite not yet finalizing the bills’ topline spending levels, known as “302(b)s.” So far, House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-OK) has released spending levels for the FY26 Agriculture, Defense, Homeland Security, and Military Construction-Veterans Affairs bills. The release of the 302(b) allocations for the remaining spending bills—including the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) bill that funds HUD’s affordable housing, homelessness, and community development programs—has been delayed as appropriators continue working toward a final agreement.  

Appropriations Chair Cole has previously stated he will aim to write FY26 spending bills as close as possible to President Trump’s FY26 budget request, which called for an extreme 44% cut to HUD funding from FY25, including a proposal to slash funding for rental assistance programs by 43%. The House Appropriations THUD Subcommittee is expected to release the text of their THUD bill in early July and has scheduled a review of the bill—known as a “markup”—for July 14, with a full Committee markup scheduled for July 17. Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-ME) and Vice Chair Patty Murray (D-WA) are reportedly still discussing topline spending agreements and a schedule for markups.   

Congress has until October 1, the beginning of the federal fiscal year, to draft, negotiate, and pass final FY26 spending bills. Without a final spending agreement, Congress will need to enact a short-term funding patch known as a continuing resolution (CR) to maintain funding for federal programs and avoid a partial federal government shutdown. While Republicans control both the House and the Senate, any spending bill needs at least 60 votes to pass the Senate, so final appropriations bills will need bipartisan support to be enacted. 

Take action TODAY: Urge Congress to expand, not cut, funding for vital affordable housing and homelessness assistance programs!  

Use NLIHC’s toolkits and resources to take action on FY26 funding, including by: 

• Using NLIHC’s new advocacy toolkit, “Opposing Cuts to Federal Investments in Affordable Housing,” to call on Congress to protect and expand affordable housing and homelessness resources. The toolkit includes talking points, advocacy materials, engagement ideas, and more resources for advocates to weigh-in with their members of Congress on the importance of these vital resources!
• Emailing or calling members’ offices to tell them about the importance of affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources to you, your family, your community, or your work. You can use NLIHC’s Take Action page to look up your member offices or call/send an email directly!
• Sharing stories of those directly impacted by homelessness and housing instability. Storytelling adds emotional weight to your message and can help lawmakers see how their policy decisions impact actual people. Learn about how to tell compelling stories with this resource. 

National, state, local, Tribal, and territorial organizations can also join over 2,600 organizations on CHCDF’s national letter calling on Congress to support the highest level of funding possible for affordable housing, homelessness, and community development resources in FY26.