Senate appropriators on Thursday advanced legislation funding environment and natural resource agencies targeted for deep budget cuts by the Trump administration.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal 2026 Interior-Environment spending bill on a bipartisan 26-2 vote. Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and John Kennedy (R-La.) were the “no” votes.

The legislation would spend $41.5 billion for Interior, EPA and other agencies, an increase compared to the White House budget request and the House’s $37.9 billion bill.

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Senators in both parties acknowledged the bipartisan process has been difficult but must be done to avoid agencies shuttering when federal funding runs out at the end of September.

“I think most of us here recognize that we have to reject that path because at the end of the day, passing funding bills here in the Senate takes 60 votes,” said ranking member Patty Murray (D-Wash.). “That means that the Trump path is choosing a dead end and a shutdown.”

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), chair of the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, said the bill was “a trust-building exercise,” which required cooperation by staffers on both sides of the aisle.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) offered an amendment that would have required minimum staffing levels for the Forest Service and National Park Service. The amendment would have required staffing levels equal to that of September 2020.

“What I’m hearing on the ground is deeply concerning,” Heinrich said. “I do think we need the workforce to actually execute on the bill they’ve written.”

Despite receiving bipartisan praise, the amendment failed 14-15, with Republicans warning against putting limits on staffing during certain periods in time.

“The concern that I have with this measure is not unlike what was raised at a prior subcommittee mark, where we’re pegging staffing to a certain point in time,” Murkowski said. “I commit to you … we will provide that oversight of these agencies to make sure that they are properly staffed.”

Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) also offered but then withdrew an amendment that took aim at Trump’s National Garden of American Heroes, which received $40 million from the Republican reconciliation package enacted earlier this month. Reed’s amendment would have protected arts funding from that project.

Bill details

The Senate Interior-Environment bill would provide $15.1 billion to the Interior Department, an increase from fiscal 2025. The House would cut Interior by about $61 million.

Senators would spend $1.3 billion for the Bureau of Land Management’s management, $1.5 billion for the Fish and Wildlife Service and about $3.3 billion for the National Park Service. The Forest Service would get $6.17 billion for the Forest Service, excluding additional wildfire dollars.

EPA would get $8.6 billion in fiscal 2026, about a 5 percent cut. That drop, however, would be much smaller than the House proposal of $7 billion.

Murkowski said the bill keeps funding level for EPA’s clean water and drinking water state revolving funds. The House version slices into those accounts by $662 million.

“I think the cuts within the EPA account were made thoughtfully and very carefully to ensure that the agency is going to continue to provide environmental protections and remediation programs that help our states, localities and tribes in their efforts to have clean air, clean water and clean soil,” Murkowski said.

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, lamented if he had “a magic wand,” he would have put more funding into the agency’s research office, which the Trump administration now intends to eliminate, and into fighting “the extreme threat of climate chaos.”

“There are things in this bill that I don’t particularly like including some legacy riders, but we worked together to make sure that there are not new, controversial policy riders in this bill,” Merkley said. “I think that’s part of the partnership that will enable us to go forward on a bipartisan basis.”

Transportation-HUD

The committee also advanced its fiscal 2026 Transportation-HUD bill, 25-1, with senators on both sides of the aisle lauding the bipartisan nature of the bill and the collaborative approach. Murphy was the sole “no” vote.

The bill would allocate about $100 billion in total funding, almost $3 billion above the currently enacted level. It includes funding and committee directions to support electric vehicle charging, rail safety and stormwater management programs.

Appropriators touted the billions of dollars for transportation safety improvements, especially for air safety and air traffic control in the aftermath of the deadly plane crash in January in the Potomac River.

Senators spent some time debating an amendment from Merkley that aimed to ensure that any potential rescissions of fiscal 2026 funding are enacted in appropriations legislation, not standalone rescissions packages. It was in response to the $9 billion rescissions package that Congress passed this month.

“It still leaves the door open for rescissions, but it says, ‘Send them back to this committee,’” Merkley said. “This is the place where rescissions should be considered.”

Republicans opposed the amendment, stating it was in the jurisdiction of the Budget Committee. Senate Appropriations Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) also noted the “breadth” of the amendment. It was rejected 14-15.

Contact reporters Kevin Bogardus on Signal at KevinBogardus.89, Garrett Downs on Signal at _garrettdowns.41 and Andres Picon on Signal at andpicon.98.