Congress

What Shut Down? House Appropriators Pat Themselves on the Back For Getting Most of Their Work Done

“It’s a highly polarized and partisanized Congress,” House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole said. “It’s a challenging time, but the reality is, we got 95% of it done.”

Rep. Mark Amodei outside the Capitol.

Rep. Mark Amodei, who is retiring, said it was good “go out while you’re on top.” (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)

By Oriana González

February 17, 2026 05:39 a.m.

The Department of Homeland Security may have recently entered a shutdown but congressional appropriators are celebrating anyway.

After years of passing short-term bills to keep the government open, House lawmakers cheered the fact that they were able to pass 11 of the 12 appropriations bills, an increasingly difficult feat.

“We’re at the point where you got all 12 of them out of committee,” said Rep. Mark Amodei, who chairs the Appropriations subcommittee that oversees DHS. “You got all 12 of them off the floor in the House.”