Beltway Buzz, January 23, 2026

Congress Faces Government Funding Deadline While Winter Storm Looms. The November 2025 legislative deal that ended the record-breaking forty-three–day federal government shutdown expires one week from today—January 30, 2026. The good news is that lawmakers are not signaling much of a desire for another shutdown (at least not yet). Since returning to Washington, D.C., for the second session of the 119th Congress, both the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives have worked to pass annual spending bills, setting the stage for the hopeful completion of the annual funding exercise next week. (The funding package is not expected to address enhanced healthcare insurance premium subsidies, one of the underlying disputes that led to the 2025 shutdown.)

Of course, nothing on Capitol Hill is ever easy. Politics can always derail efforts at the last minute. Further, it will likely be up to the Senate—which is on recess this week—to cast the final votes on the funding measures next week. But returning to Washington, D.C., next week could prove treacherous for many senators in light of potentially significant winter weather that is expected to impact large portions of the country.

Finally, these bills extend funding through the normal federal government fiscal calendar. This means that funding for fiscal year 2027 will need to be approved before October 1, 2026. Though many of us have “government funding fatigue,” legislative work on fiscal year (FY) 2027 will begin sooner than you may think.

FY 2026 Funding Impacts on Labor and Employment Agencies. Potential passage of the funding package will mark the first time that Republicans in the 119th Congress get their hands around the federal government’s purse strings. Indeed, all government funding in 2025 was established by the previous Congress (and administration) and extended through multiple continuing resolutions in 2025.

But even with Republican majorities in the U.S. Congress, cuts to funding levels for labor and employment agencies are not as significant as one might think. To the contrary, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will actually receive an increase of $65 million for a total of $13.7 billion. As far as government dollars go, this is a nominal increase, but an increase nonetheless, especially given the fact that the White House budget had proposed a $4.5 billion cut to the DOL. That said, many subagencies within DOL will receive flat funding or cuts to their funding. Key subagencies will receive the following appropriations:

• Wage and Hour Division: $260 million (FY 2025 enacted, $260 million)
• Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): $629 million (FY 2025 enacted, $632 million)
• Employee Benefit Security Administration (EBSA): $191 million (FY 2025 enacted, $191 million)
• Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP): $101 million (FY 2025, $111 million). The White House’s budget, as well as the House Republicans’ underlying bill, eliminated OFCCP entirely. Other DOL subagencies that were targeted for elimination but will now receive funding include the Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB) (funded at $116 million) and the Women’s Bureau ($23 million).

Finally, the legislation appropriates approximately $294 million for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), about $5 million less than currently enacted. The Board lost about 10 percent of its workforce in 2025 due to retirement and deferred resignations. The legislation also includes a “legacy rider” (language that has been included in the bill since the Buzz can remember) that prohibits the NLRB from “issu[ing] any new administrative directive or regulation that would provide employees any means of voting through any electronic means in an election to determine a representative for the purposes of collective bargaining.”

EEOC Rescinds 2024 Harassment Guidance. By a vote of 2–1, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rescinded its “Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace,” which was finalized in 2024. Republican Commissioner Brittany Bull Panuccio and Chair Andrea Lucas, also a Republican, emphasized that the rescission of the harassment guidance does not diminish employees’ or applicants’ rights under federal law—that workplace harassment is unlawful with or without the guidance. They further emphasized that the Commission continues to bring harassment-based charges against employers and maintained that the guidance is essentially a substantive rule that exceeds the Commission’s authority under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On the other hand, Democratic Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal—who voted against rescinding the guidance—argued that the guidance provides helpful information to employees and employers and urged the Commission to solicit public input and take a more targeted approach to amending the guidance. Nonnie L. Shivers, T. Scott Kelly, and Zachary V. Zagger have the details.

Speaker Johnson Addresses Parliament. This week, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) became the first Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives to address the UK Parliament. Invited by Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker of the UK House of Commons, Speaker Johnson’s address celebrated the 250th anniversary of the United States, and focused on the shared bonds between the two countries:

“But again, the surest way that we protect a special relationship long term is by renewing and recommitting to our foundational principles. As Churchill taught us, the strongest alliances are between kindred countries of kindred principles. What has always set us apart from the rest of the world is our commitment to liberty, our pursuit of excellence, our desire to put faith and family at the center of our lives.”

In 1976, Speaker of the House Carl Albert (a Democrat from Oklahoma) was invited as a guest to Speaker’s House, the official residence of the Speaker of the House of Commons, by Speaker of the UK House of Commons George Thomas to celebrate the United States’ bicentennial. Albert did not address Parliament.