Sen. Chris Coons (D-Delaware) celebrates some financial wins for Delaware within the federal budget but says a government shutdown is possible come October.
Congress is on a month-long legislative break after making some progress on various appropriation bills that comprise the fiscal year 26 federal budget.
While not set in stone yet, Sen. Coons, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, kept the First State at the forefront of his mind while helping to craft next year’s defense budget.
“As the ranking Democrat on the committee that funds $852 billion in defense appropriations, I tried to make sure that Delaware installations, the Delaware Guard, Delaware companies and the region could benefit as much as was reasonably possible," he said.
This includes funding for the Delaware Air Guard for aircraft procurement, funding to support the continued production of helicopters at the Boeing Ridley park Facility, monies for PFAS remediation projects and hundreds of millions of dollars for various programs like the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, the Defense Community Infrastructure Program and the APEX Accelerators Program.
The spending measure was approved by the full Senate Appropriations Committee with bipartisan support, but Coons says ultimate approval largely hangs on the willingness of House Republicans and the Trump administration to compromise.
While Senate appropriation measures have been advancing bipartisanly, House Republicans have written budget bills that directly implement massive funding cuts requested by the Trump administration and are leaving the House Appropriations Committee generally on party lines.
Coons says when Congress reconvenes in September, there will be hundreds of billions of dollars to reconcile between the two chambers’ spending proposals, and if a compromise isn’t reached by the end of the month, a government shutdown could be imminent.
“The larger question is what's better for the American people: having a fully funded government that provides a broad range of support and services, or having whole agencies and departments shut down? I think the former. What does that mean is going to happen September 30, is going to come down to, does the administration and House Republicans make outrageous demands in the end of year process?”
Coons also notes the recently passed Rescissions Act of 2025, which clawed back $9.4 billion in previously approved funding for foreign aid and public media, was the first non-bipartisan recession in 50 years.
He says this unprecedented move has only furthered the strain between the two parties at a time where several Democrats are needed in the Senate to pass the final budget bills.
Despite party tension, Sen. Coons says his understanding is several of his Republican colleagues will stand against Trump-proposed cuts that they don't support.
"I sure as heck don't trust President Trump or [U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russel Vought] to keep their commitments in terms of respecting the law and funding programs, not at all," Sen. Coons said. "But on Saturday, we spent 12 hours on the floor... and I had the chance to talk to a lot of my colleagues. There are enough left that want to appropriate and want to save these programs and who told me they will not support another rescission, that I'm willing to go back in September and keep trying."
U.S. lawmakers could pass a stop-gap measure before September 30 to avoid a shutdown and allow more time to work on the spending measures, but without that measure or a budget compromise, the federal government is poised to shut down indefinitely on October 1.
Disclosure: Delaware Public Media received funding annually from The Corporation for Public Media. The Rescissions Act of 2025 clawed back about $160,000 in funding for DPM or about 15% of its annual budget.
