House GOP funding chief pushes for stopgap funding bill into November

Source: The Hill

09/02/25 8:33 PM ET


House Appropriations Committee Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said Tuesday that he’s pushing for a stopgap that punts this month’s threat of a government shutdown into November to buy time for funding talks. Congress has until Sept. 30 to strike a deal to keep the government funded or risk its first shutdown in years.

Asked for his preferred timeline for a stopgap, which would freeze funding at current levels while lawmakers negotiate a bill for fiscal 2026, Cole said Tuesday that he wants to see a stopgap “into November.”

Cole said lawmakers are specifically discussing kicking the deadline into as early as Nov. 6, but added, “The latest we would go would be pre-Thanksgiving, like the 20th.”

“My aim is to try to get to a negotiated agreement on all 12 bills,” he said, referring to the 12 annual government funding bills Congress is working to craft. “That’s what [Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine)] and I are trying to work together on, and what we think the best thing is to begin the process and hope these other things resolve themselves over the course of discussion.”

Read more: https://thehill.com/business/budget/5482938-cole-government-funding-stopgap/