House passes legislation to keep government open; Senate Ds reject

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Tom Cole (OK-04) released the following statement after voting in favor of his legislation, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act of 2026, which will keep the government open and serving the American people:

“Today, my House Republican colleagues joined me in taking responsible action to keep our government open and working for the nation. Keeping the lights on is not a partisan issue – and this clean, short-term funding extension reflects that. By acting in good faith to prevent the chaos of a shutdown, we are preserving stability for families and communities, protecting the real progress already made on appropriations bills, and strengthening our position to complete the Fiscal Year 2026 process responsibly,” said Congressman Cole.

“The contrast with Democrats on this is telling. They tried to hijack a simple government funding extension with a partisan grab bag of unrelated provisions – demanding $1.5 trillion in new spending just to keep the government open for four weeks. It is wrong and they know it. House Republicans rejected that approach and chose stability, discipline, and results instead,” said Congressman Cole.

“I am very proud to have voted to keep the government open and serving the American people today, and I remain committed to completing the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations process through regular order,” said Congressman Cole.

“At the beginning of this process, I was asked to produce a clean bill for a limited period of time by my colleagues on the other side,” Cole said. “Then, all of a sudden, we have extraneous demands for things unrelated to the day-to-day operation of the government…You got exactly what you asked for.”

The Senate voted Friday to block dueling Republican and Democratic proposals to keep the federal government funded on a short-term basis, raising the chances of a shutdown at the end of the month.

The Republican plan, which passed by GOP-controlled House by a vote of 217-212 earlier Friday, fell short of the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster in the Senate: The vote was 44-48, with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania the only Democrat to vote yes, and Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska the only Republicans voting no.