Trump signs funding bill after House passage, ending government shutdown

US President Donald Trump signed a funding bill on Nov. 12 to end a 43-day government shutdown, during which the administration threatened mass layoffs for federal workers, including hundreds of potential job cuts across energy-related agencies.

The bill cleared the US House of Representatives hours earlier on the same day in a 222-209 vote, with support from six House Democrats and opposition from just two Republicans.

The bill, advanced out of the Senate two days earlier, is also intended to jump-start the fiscal year 2026 appropriations process derailed by a bitter dispute over the Republicans' cuts to Affordable Care Act subsidies.

The Senate-crafted measure includes a "mini" omnibus appropriations package, or minibus, that funds the US Department of Veterans Affairs, US Department of Agriculture, US Food and Drug Administration and the Legislative Branch through fiscal year 2026.

The Senate is expected to take up another fiscal year 2026 mini omnibus for Energy, Water and related agencies shortly after returning from the Thanksgiving holiday break. That package will need to win bipartisan support to overcome the Senate's 60-vote filibuster threshold.

In July, the House Committee on Appropriations began advancing Republican-backed fiscal year 2026 spending bills that would cut the US Environmental Protection Agency's budget by 23% and slash the US Department of Energy's budget for renewable energy, clean energy, grid deployment and efficiency programs.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which is supported largely by user fees, was able to operate without substantial furloughs during the shutdown, unlike many other agencies. However, the commission could have come close to exhausting its cushion if the shutdown had dragged out much longer.

The legislation would also temporarily prevent large-scale layoffs at key energy agencies. As part of the deal to win over some Democrats in the Senate, the bill would block spending on planned reductions in force until Jan. 30, 2026. A summary of the bill said it would return workforce levels to the status quo prior to the current lapse in appropriations. Employees already laid off under the RIFs would be reinstated.

The potential layoffs included 27 positions at the EPA and 2,050 jobs at the Department of the Interior, according to court filings. The US Department of Energy also told the court it sent general notices to 180 employees of potential RIFs, although it did not follow through with individual layoffs or specify dates of future cuts.

Notably, the combined spending package enacted Nov. 12 does not include language in short-term funding patch passed by House Republicans in September that would have cut the Government Accountability Office's budget by roughly half. The House Republican bill also would have prohibited the nonpartisan watchdog agency from suing the executive branch over withholding congressionally appropriated funds -- also known as impoundment -- a major point of concern among congressional Democrats.

Potential action on permitting reform

With Congress resuming work in Washington, lawmakers are expected to reboot efforts to secure a bipartisan compromise on permitting reform legislation.

The House Committee on Natural Resources, for example, has yet to mark up a bipartisan bill led by Arkansas representative Chairman Bruce Westerman, Republican-Arkansas, and retiring Representative Jared Golden, Democrat-Maine, to overhaul permitting under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The bill would raise the standard for legal challenges that allege agency shortcomings in NEPA reviews and impose time limits on appeals of major federal actions.

However, other Democrats on the committee have said the bill's technology-neutral approach to energy project permitting is at odds with the Trump administration's ongoing efforts to stifle wind, solar and transmission development on public lands.

During a hearing in September, the Natural Resources Committee also heard testimony on two less contentious bills that would establish government-wide data standards for environmental reviews and require an annual report on NEPA litigation.