Sponsors
Introduced July 17, 2025 by Jerry Moran · Last progress July 17, 2025
The bill improves transparency, targeted aid, and some agency oversight while tightening controls on spending and program operations—trading increased congressional visibility and accountability for reduced agency flexibility, some funding rescissions, and restrictions that significantly affect reproductive services and certain collaborations.
Taxpayers and Congress get clearer, more frequent information about federal balances, large program lifecycle costs, and major reprogrammings (quarterly account-level reports, lifecycle cost baselines, 30-day notice for major reprogrammings), improving budget transparency and congressional oversight.
Federal oversight and audit capacity is strengthened through DOJ OIG funding and stricter pre‑certification/reporting requirements for major IT and fund accounts, reducing risk of costly program failures and improving accountability.
Parents, families, religious organizations, and some inmates see expanded civil‑liberties protections (limits on DOJ targeting of peaceful school‑board protesters, protections for religious institutions, and allowance for escorted female federal inmates to obtain abortions outside facilities in certain circumstances).
Pregnant people who rely on federal facilities or federally funded programs face reduced access to abortion services and legal uncertainty for providers because DOJ funding for most abortions is prohibited and enforcement depends on contingent court rulings.
Taxpayers, state governments, and program beneficiaries lose funding and agencies may face program cuts or hiring freezes because the bill rescinds prior unobligated balances and requires departments to absorb personnel‑action costs within existing budgets.
Federal agencies’ ability to respond quickly to emerging needs could be constrained by tight reprogramming caps, stricter transfer rules, and late‑year reprogramming prohibitions, potentially delaying responses to urgent operational or disaster needs.
Based on analysis of 10 sections of legislative text.
Establishes FY2026 spending rules for Commerce and Justice, tightens transfer/reprogramming oversight, restricts certain DOJ expenditures, and sets lifecycle cost figures for major satellite programs.
Sets fiscal-year 2026 rules for Commerce and Justice spending, including how funds may be used, limited intra‑agency transfers, reprogramming and notification requirements, and detailed general appropriation restrictions. It adopts lifecycle cost figures for several NOAA/space weather satellite programs and authorizes the Commerce Secretary to provide and be reimbursed for building services. Limits and conditions on Department of Justice spending include narrow exceptions for abortion-related expenditures, restrictions on prisoner transport and certain recreational media purchases by federal prisons, and authorization for limited representation expenses. The Act also tightens reprogramming rules (30‑day advance notice and quantitative caps), increases contracting transparency, and establishes debarment ineligibility under federal acquisition rules for specified determinations.