Legislative Committee: Congress Faces Dec. 11 Pileup on Spending, Transportation and Farm Bill

Will County Legislative Committee | October 6, 2026

Article Summary: Will County’s Washington lobbying firm told the Legislative Committee on Oct. 6, 2026, that Congress has left town until after the November midterm elections and returns to a single December 11 deadline covering annual appropriations, surface transportation authorization and the farm bill.

Federal Legislative Update Key Points:

The House has passed three of the 12 annual appropriations bills; the Senate has passed none, according to the firm’s presentation.

Dec. 11, 2026, is the expiration of the current continuing resolution, the extended surface transportation authorization, and a one-month limitation on new federal hemp restrictions.

The Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act and confirmed Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling before leaving.

The committee received the report under agenda item 26-5592 and took no action.

WILL COUNTY — Congress is out until after the Nov. 3 midterm elections and comes back to a crowded December calendar, the Will County Board’s Legislative Committee was told on Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2026.

A representative of Smith Garson, the county’s Washington government affairs firm, told the committee that the House has been out for a couple of weeks and that the Senate remained in session until the previous Wednesday. Before adjourning, he said, the Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act, which sets up regulations for college sports, and confirmed Keith Sonderling as secretary of labor. Several other items were put off until after the elections.

“December 11th is the big deadline for several bills,” he said. The government is operating under a continuing resolution that extended past the previous September deadline, and the House and Senate must still pass all 12 annual appropriations bills and send them to the president. The House has passed three; the Senate has passed none. The surface transportation bill must be reauthorized by the same date, as must the farm bill.

He said no legislative movement is expected until both chambers reconvene, and that a ratepayer protection measure — intended to prevent ratepayers from absorbing the added energy cost of data centers — is among the bills expected to occupy Congress for the rest of the year. On foreign policy, he said peace efforts in the Iran conflict remain stalled and the president has predicted no deal until after the election, and that the administration is negotiating trade matters with Mexico and Canada ahead of an opportunity to revise the USMCA next summer.

Winfrey thanked him. “Nice and concise,” she said. “Right to the point.”

The Written Report

The firm’s October 2026 Washington Monthly Report, included in the packet, adds detail the presentation did not cover.

Its lead item is hemp. The report states that on Sept. 1 the House voted 370-48 to concur in Senate amendments to H.R. 6500, the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027, which included Section 2019, “Section 781 Extension.” President Trump signed it into law on Sept. 2 as P.L. 119-103. The section limits implementation of hemp restrictions enacted under H.R. 5371, the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026, cited as P.L. 119-37, until Dec. 11, 2026. Until that date, the Section 781 amendments apply only to specified products containing cannabinoids not capable of being naturally produced by the plant. Section 781 itself is scheduled to take effect Nov. 12, 2026.

The same legislation extended continuing appropriations through Dec. 11, replacing the Sept. 30 funding deadline, and extended the current surface transportation authorization law through the same date. It also paused a final rule that the report says would have allowed political appointees wide leeway to terminate discretionary grants.

Other items in the report include House passage of the Water Resources Development Act of 2026, H.R. 9497, by a vote of 415-9 on Sept. 16, with final agreement between the chambers not expected until after the midterms; Senate rejection of a motion to proceed to the CLARITY Act on digital asset markets, 49-50, on Sept. 15; House passage of the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, H.R. 5334, 262-159 on Sept. 15; and Senate Agriculture Committee advancement of a farm bill reauthorization on a 12-11 party-line vote on Sept. 16.

The report also lists the firm’s routine activities for the month, including bi-weekly calls with Chief of Staff Pelkie and County Executive staff, and updates on FY27 Congressionally Directed Spending requests and federal grant opportunities.