The U.S. House voted on Tuesday to extend funding for the government at existing levels through Dec. 4, while the Senate’s appropriation process has stalled. Additionally, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) issued several decisions in their latest term that directly impact local governments.
Short-Term Funding Extension
The short-term measure aims to avoid a shutdown before the Sept. 30 funding deadline and delay major spending negotiations until after the November midterm elections. The continuing resolution passed in a 220–205 vote, with six Democrats joining nearly all Republicans in support; Georgia’s delegation split along party lines.
House Republicans emphasized that the bill maintains current funding levels and excludes additional policy provisions, describing it as a “clean” extension intended to prevent partisan fights ahead of the fall elections.
The measure now moves to the Senate, where lawmakers are considering a different approach. Senate appropriators are discussing targeted exceptions to add to the stopgap bill, aimed at avoiding disruptions that flat funding could cause. The White House provided a list of such exceptions on Monday, though none were included in the House bill.
The list of requests for special exceptions calls on Congress to increase funding for military health programs, certain national security systems, operations of national parks, and more. It also asks lawmakers to extend special authority for certain agencies, including for FEMA to spend disaster relief more quickly during the span of the funding patch.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune signaled plans to bring a short-term funding bill with the exceptions to the floor before the August recess.
While the House Appropriations Committee has advanced all 12 annual funding bills and the full House has passed three, the process has stalled in the Senate, where none of the appropriations measures have cleared committee so far. The short-term extension is intended to keep the government operating while both chambers attempt to restart the stalled appropriations process.
SCOTUS Decisions
The U.S. Supreme Court closed out its 2025-2026 term with several rulings that affect local governments. The Court ruled that homeowners facing tax foreclosure are only owed the surplus from the auction sale price, not the property's fair market value, a win for cities and counties that rely on tax auctions to collect unpaid debts. The Court also set a new standard for when police can enter a home without a warrant to respond to a non-criminal emergency, like a suicide threat or wellness check, ruling that officers need only a reasonable basis for believing someone is in danger, not full probable cause. In a case involving geofence warrants, the Court held that police conducting a search when they pull location data from a person's phone provider implicates the 4th Amendment, a decision that will shape how departments use that investigative tool going forward. The Court also issued rulings this term on qualified immunity, birthright citizenship, the Second Amendment, and election and redistricting law.
Consistent with NLC legal advocacy efforts and through their partnership with the Local Government Legal Center (“LGLC”), NLC participated in amicus briefs presenting sound and persuasive legal arguments to the court on principles and issues important to good municipal government.
Full case details, including the court's reasoning and what each ruling means going forward, are covered in NLC's roundup: 2025-2026 Supreme Court Term Roundup: Decisions Important to Local Government.