HR6938-119

What This Bill Does

This enacted appropriations package funds and regulates three large policy areas for fiscal year 2026. The Commerce-Justice-Science division funds the Department of Commerce, the Department of Justice, NOAA, NASA, NSF, and related agencies while attaching riders on transfers, grant matching, IT projects, abortion funding, prison spending, firearms policy, religious-belief protections, medical marijuana enforcement, CHIPS Act allocation, persistent-poverty grants, NASA-China cooperation, procurement security, tobacco export promotion, torture, national security letters, detainee transfers, and pornography blocking on agency networks.

The Energy and Water division funds the Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Energy, Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and related programs while controlling reprogramming, transfer authority, water-project eligibility, water supply studies, DOE high-hazard nuclear construction, grant awards over $1 million, power marketing funds, Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to China-linked entities, DOE awards to entities with serious criminal or civil findings, foreign national access to National Nuclear Security Administration sites, indirect cost rates for DOE assistance, and $3.1 billion in small modular reactor deployment support.

The Interior-Environment division funds Interior bureaus, EPA, the Forest Service, Indian Health Service, tribal programs, National Park Service grants, wildfire suppression, arts and humanities agencies, and related activities. It gives Interior transfer and no-year appropriation flexibility, supports Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education restructuring, requires offshore inspection fees, permits cooperative agreements with nonprofits, protects endangered salmon monitoring, funds public-land volunteers and fire departments, controls report posting and reprogramming, blocks certain regulations and land actions, extends wildfire and forest-management authorities, and makes community project funding tables operative.

Who Benefits and How

Congressional appropriations committees benefit because the explanatory statements, reprogramming rules, operating plans, quarterly reports, CHIPS allocation notices, DOE indirect-cost rules, and Interior allocation tables give them visibility and leverage over how agencies spend the money. NOAA benefits from vessel, aircraft, remote-sensing, and National Weather Service staffing provisions. DOJ grant recipients benefit from hardship waivers, grant flexibilities, Performance Partnership pilots, and protections for religious students, parents, medical marijuana patients, and state-legal medical marijuana businesses.

NASA, NSF, Commerce, and research institutions benefit from appropriations, but the bill routes those benefits through research-security controls and China-related restrictions. Persistent-poverty counties benefit because at least 10 percent of several Commerce public works and grant programs must go to persistent-poverty counties. DOE and the nuclear industry benefit from the $3.1 billion transfer for Generation 3+ small modular reactor deployment projects and demonstration awards. Water infrastructure beneficiaries include Corps projects, Reclamation projects, Fish and Wildlife Service mitigation work, water reuse and storage interests, and rural or tribal water users.

Interior, tribal, and environmental programs benefit from tribal priority allocation authority, Indian Self-Determination lease-cost rules, public land volunteer agreements, wildland fire management funding, wildfire suppression authorities, National Park Service conservation assistance, and Indian Health Service contract support costs and payments for tribal leases. Arts and humanities grant recipients benefit from NEA and National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities award rules, while rural fire departments and rangeland fire protection associations benefit from Interior grants and cooperative agreements.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Agency budget offices bear major compliance burdens because they must follow reprogramming thresholds, transfer limits, spending allocation tables, operating-plan requirements, reporting requirements, computer-network blocking requirements, Buy American false-label contract restrictions, grant cost-sharing rules, and congressional notice procedures. Commerce, NASA, NSF, and DOE must report or restrict China-linked research cooperation, CHIPS allocation, foreign visitors, indirect costs, and grants to entities with serious criminal, civil, or tax findings. DOJ is barred from using funds for abortion payments except specified cases, abortion facilitation mandates, certain prison spending, targeting peaceful school-board protesters, investigating religious institutions based on beliefs, or blocking state medical-marijuana laws.

Entities facing restrictions include tobacco export promotion efforts, organizations seeking contracts while falsely using Made in America labels, contractors seeking large contracts without certification, non-autonomous border-like surveillance vendors in other DHS bills are not relevant here, entities linked to Chinese military companies or foreign countries of concern in research contexts, and entities with felony convictions or unpaid federal tax liabilities seeking DOE awards above $10 million. Interior and EPA officials must also comply with restrictions on Endangered Species Act rules, lead content regulation for ammunition and fishing tackle, mineral and oil leasing activities, land acquisition declarations, land management reorganization, offshore inspection fees, and regulatory implementation limits.

Key Provisions

• Provides FY2026 appropriations and makes the House explanatory statement legally operative for Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy-Water, and Interior-Environment accounts.
• Requires Commerce, NASA, NSF, DOE, Interior, EPA, Forest Service, and Indian Health Service reports, allocations, and reprogramming notices to appropriations committees.
• Protects National Weather Service staffing, NOAA mission operations, Justice grant flexibilities, religious students and parents in DOJ-funded programs, and state-legal medical marijuana activity from specified DOJ funding use.
• Restricts NASA-China cooperation, Commerce/DOJ/NASA/NSF China research reporting, DOE awards to entities with serious legal findings, NNSA foreign-national access, and other research-security risks.
• Provides $3.1 billion for Generation 3+ small modular reactor deployment and demonstration projects while barring Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales to China-linked entities.
• Funds and regulates Corps, Reclamation, DOE, NRC, Interior, EPA, Forest Service, IHS, tribal, wildfire, arts, humanities, and public-land programs through detailed riders.
• Prohibits or limits funds for torture, tobacco export promotion, certain detainee transfers, Arms Trade Treaty implementation without Senate ratification, pornography-accessible agency networks, and selected environmental rules.