The Senate passed its first package of fiscal 2026 spending bills Friday, making up for lost time in the long-delayed appropriations process before preparing to head out of town for a monthlong August recess.

The package contains the Senate’s Military Construction-VA, Agriculture and Legislative Branch bills, comprising about $188 billion of the more than $1.6 trillion in discretionary spending likely to be approved for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

“We are on the verge of an accomplishment that we have not done since 2018, and that is pass appropriations bills across the Senate floor prior to the August recess,” Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins, R-Maine, said before the final votes. “That is exercising our constitutional responsibility for the power of the purse.”

Approp

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