WASHINGTON — Alabama is set to receive more than $102 million for law enforcement agencies, water infrastructure upgrades and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects as part of a package of spending bills moving through the Senate this week.
Congress is racing to fund much of the federal government before the end of the month to avert another shutdown. As part of the deal to end the impasse last year, lawmakers passed three of the 12 annual appropriations bills to fund agricultural and veterans programs and military construction. Alabama received around $169 million for projects as part of that package in November.
The Senate advanced the roughly $175 billion three-bill package Monday by a vote of 80-13. The “minibus” would fund multiple agencies, including the Departments of Commerce and Justice, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Interior Department. A final vote is expected later this week. If no amendments are added, the bills could be sent to President Donald Trump’s desk as soon as this week.
“I feel really confident about continuing to be able to move forward and get the appropriations process done,” U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., an appropriator, told Alabama Daily News last week.
The House passed the package with broad bipartisan support last Thursday. All of Alabama’s House members voted for it. Nearly half of Alabama’s $102 million in earmarks included in the bills is directed at U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects.
As an appropriator, U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., secured the most earmarks out of the delegation in the package, totaling more than $72 million, which includes law enforcement upgrades and wastewater improvements around the state. Some of Britt’s projects were also supported by fellow Alabama lawmakers.
U.S. Rep. Dale Strong, R-Huntsville, the vice chair of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, secured more than $12 million for North Alabama projects.
Some of those projects include $4.2 million for the University of Alabama in Huntsville’s AI Research Facility for Space and Defense and $1.5 million for a water storage tank in Rogersville.
“Working closely with our state and local partners, I’m proud to deliver targeted investments that keep our communities safe, strengthen our workforce, and ensure North Alabama remains a leader in innovation, defense, and aerospace for years to come,” Strong said in a statement.
The City of Greenville is set to receive $3.5 million for water supply augmentation as part of the package. Sens. Britt and Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile, teamed up to secure that funding.
Other Alabama projects include $2 million for Jacksonville State University’s Additive Manufacturing Training and Innovation Lab and $1.55 million for cybersecurity research of port operations at Auburn University.
Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, is the only Alabama lawmaker who did not submit requests for earmarks for fiscal year 2026.
Republicans have praised the conferenced spending bills for setting spending levels below the current levels that are in the continuing resolution. Democrats highlighted how the package rejects more than $163 billion in proposed cuts to public services.
On Sunday, House and Senate appropriators released another two-bill package to fund the Executive and Judicial branches, along with the Department of State. The House is expected to vote on those bills this week.
Notably missing from that package is the spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security, which was expected to be a part of that minibus. Britt is the chair of the appropriations subcommittee that funds DHS. She said early last week that she had hoped to have the DHS bill as part of the package released over the weekend.
But Democrats are angry with Immigration and Customs Enforcement after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis.
“Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t restrain the growing lawlessness of this agency,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT, the top Democrat on the Homeland Security subcommittee, said on social media last week.
If these two packages pass Congress this month, lawmakers will still have four bills left to hammer out before the funding deadline, including the two biggest ones, funding the Department of Defense and the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education.
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