The House is making a push to formally conference government funding legislation for fiscal 2026 with the Senate, breaking with recent norms as Congress stares down a Sept. 30 deadline to prevent a government shutdown.

The House voted this week to begin to conference three of the 12 annual funding bills for fiscal 2026: for the departments of Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration, rural development and military construction and the legislative branch.

“What we’re really advocating for is an actual, old-school conference, the way this is supposed to work, between the House and Senate,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a press conference on Tuesday.

But there’s uncertainty in the upper chamber around whether the Senate will take a similar route.

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