Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026

Floor Speech

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 722, I call up the bill (H.R. 5371) making continuing appropriations and extensions for fiscal year 2026, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration in the House.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026.

This Congress has a fundamental responsibility to fund the government and keep it open and serving the American people. It is a duty I take seriously and one that I have worked diligently to lead on.

Over the past year, the House Committee on Appropriations has acted to fulfill our fiscal year 2026 responsibilities. Constraints and challenges didn't stop us from doing the hard work, line by line, to uphold fiscal discipline and effective governance.

I am proud to say our markup process delivered all 12 regular appropriations bills out of committee. We have also passed three of these bills across the floor, representing more than 60 percent of overall discretionary spending.

That momentum has continued with our move to conference on the three- bill package covering Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, and the Legislative Branch bills. This marks the first conference on major appropriations legislation in close to a decade, and it is a critical step for this institution and for restoring regular order.

We are certainly moving forward productively, and a bipartisan, bicameral agreement is firmly within our grasp. We just need more time to sustain negotiations and complete our work.

That is why we are here today, Mr. Speaker. The continuing resolution before us is simple. It extends funding until November 21. It is a clean, short-term stopgap that protects the fiscal year 2026 progress we have made and allows the appropriations process to advance toward full-year bills. It allows us to return the appropriations process to regular order, where it should be.

This is the responsible path. I want to remind my friends on the other side of the aisle what this measure is. It is a clean CR that keeps the lights on for the American people while we finish our work. It contains no poison pills or partisan riders. It provides essential security measures for all three branches of government. It is a short extension of just 7 weeks.

By keeping our government funded, it protects our military and defense needs, supports our veterans, and sustains critical services for our constituents, from roads, parks, and water projects to infrastructure, research, and job training.

This tailored, straightforward approach is exactly what Democrats previously asked for. Now, they are rejecting it to manufacture a partisan fight over provisions totally unrelated to appropriations.

Let me be very clear: A shutdown would do nothing to help our work on full-year bills or to support the American people. If Members want stability for the American people, time for negotiations in good faith, and regular order, they will support this CR. Any other vote would be reckless, not just for both parties but for the entire Nation.

I have said this previously, but it remains relevant today: Republicans and Democrats are more effective when they negotiate rather than provoke partisan confrontations, and the country is better off when Republicans and Democrats actually work together.

Let's do that now. We must act today for our country, for our national security, and for our constituents. I hope that all will join me in keeping the government open and serving the American people.

Mr. MOORE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, this debate about keeping the government open is not just an academic debate. I have been here about 8 months. Before that, for about 10 years, I had the opportunity to write budgets for our State of North Carolina in our State legislature. We showed how you can lower taxes, cut regulations, and turn things around, which we have done successfully. I am new in this game here in Washington.

I want to talk about something that is very important to my home State, and that is disaster relief after Hurricane Helene, which has been almost a year ago when that happened, and the ongoing efforts that are happening right now. I want my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to hear this very loudly and clearly. If the government is shut down, those relief efforts, which are vital to my State and other States, including California, that are dealing with cleaning up from disasters, those efforts will stop. That is malpractice. We cannot do that. It is vital to make sure that those things continue.

I am reminded, and I am going to give a shout-out to Chairman Cole here. Back before I was a Member last year, we came up with a delegation from North Carolina. We met with the chairman and other members of the Appropriations Committee. I am very proud of the way that they, on a bipartisan basis, funded that initial tranche of relief for our State and that we have done additional work.

Mr. MOORE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, we need to continue the efforts to make sure that we rebuild in western Carolina and any other part of the country that has been impacted.

My request to my friends on the other side of the aisle: There is time to debate all of these other issues as this appropriations bill passes through the process, but this CR simply gives additional time to work through this and will make sure that these disaster relief efforts continue unabated. This is important. We owe it to the people of my district, of my State, and, frankly, to everyone in this Nation.

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, that was quite an unconventional closing. Normally when someone closes, they are the last speaker. I regret that, but I am happy to always hear from my good friend and distinguished minority leader. That is an unusual move.

The gentleman has the right to speak. The 1 minute is 1 minute. I respect that. I would just ask my friend in the future to just please be here in time to do it before we close.

Mr. Speaker, I won't take the 18 minutes that I have. I don't think I need it. The facts here are pretty clear. At the beginning of this process, I was asked to produce a clean bill for a limited period of time by my colleagues on the other side. They asked for that so that we could continue negotiations on a package of three bills. Those are going quite well now and are happening.

All of a sudden, we have extraneous demands for things unrelated to the day-to-day operation of the government. With all due respect, I think additional negotiations on those topics could happen. I think the majority leader in the United States Senate actually signaled they could happen but not attached to this particular bill.

This is what my friends on the other side asked for. They asked for a clean bill with no partisan riders and no tricks. Give it to us for a short period.

I was told by my distinguished friend in the United States Senate, Senator Murray: Oh no, we don't want to go all the way to January like the Trump administration does. We want to go into November.

I said: Great. I actually agree with you. I think we should keep this thing moving.

The thing to keep moving is the appropriations bills that fund the government. If my friends want to shut the government down, they have every right to do so. They might do it today. They certainly have the power of the United States Senate to do that.

Rest assured, my Democratic colleagues are doing exactly what Republicans did in 2013. It did not work for them. Republicans tied something unrelated to spending, ObamaCare, and shut down the government. That was the wrong thing to do then. I said it was the wrong thing to do. It was. My Democratic colleagues are doing the same thing now. There is nothing else.

If they want to have important negotiations on these other topics, they are important topics, and they ought to be negotiated. What is happening is not some cut that is in this bill. We are not cutting anything. A measure that was passed on a bipartisan basis, as I recall, ran out. It is running out. We should probably talk about that. We don't do it on a CR.

This is a manufactured crisis. My Democratic friends got exactly what they asked for. They asked for a clean CR. They got a clean CR. They asked for a limited amount of time. They got a limited amount of time. They asked for negotiations on the remaining three bills. Those negotiations are underway. That is what this committee should be focused on.

That is all we are doing today, Mr. Speaker. We are buying the time that we all need to finish a process that we are all trying to restore and we think is broken. We now have people dropping things out of the blue that were never intended to be in the CR. They are trying to create a sense of crisis and drama. If they think that moves us in the right direction, I disagree.

I think that moves us in the wrong direction. I think keeping the government open for the American people and negotiating in good faith on bills that we are close to getting done and moving it through regular order is the right thing to do. I think provoking a government shutdown is the wrong thing to do. If you disagree, then vote ``no.'' Take your privilege and shut down the Government of the United States, something you have repeatedly condemned Republicans for when they did it, and rightly condemned, but you are doing the same thing, and you know it. You absolutely know it.

If you want to shut down the government today, fine.

We will give the United States Senate the same opportunity if we vote to keep it open, and if they want to shut it down, that is up to them.

However, we are at the table ready to negotiate. We are negotiating on the three bills we agreed to negotiate on right now.

That is the work of the Appropriations Committee, not this, and that is what the CR would deal with.

My friends, when I give you what you asked for, and you decide that is not acceptable, you change it afterwards, and you drop unrelated items in, that is up to you. But let's not have any pretense about what is going on here. It is political theater. That is all it is. But you are doing it at the risk of shutting the Government of the United States.

Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to vote for this CR. I am proud to work with my friends on the bills we were supposed to work with. I hope we can reach agreement and bring those bills to the floor in short order.

Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' on the bill in front of us, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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