By Eduardo Bacci, The Investigative Journal
With both chambers out of Washington ahead of the November midterms, the legislative action this week shifted from the floor to the scorekeepers. The Congressional Budget Office closed the books on fiscal year 2026 with a $2.0 trillion deficit, released a batch of cost estimates on committee-reported bills, and a Senate-passed accountability measure quietly became law. Below is TIJ’s tracker of what moved, what stalled, and what is queued for the lame-duck session that begins after Election Day.
1. CBO: Fiscal Year 2026 Deficit Hits $2.0 Trillion
The headline fiscal number of the week came on October 8, when CBO published its Monthly Budget Review for September 2026. According to the agency, the federal deficit for fiscal year 2026 totaled an estimated $2.0 trillion, $218 billion more than the deficit recorded in fiscal year 2025. Revenues rose by $169 billion, or 3 percent, but outlays grew faster, by an estimated $386 billion, or 6 percent.
CBO attributes the spending growth to net interest on the debt, major benefit programs, defense, and education, partly offset by declines elsewhere. Revenue gains were driven by larger collections of individual income and payroll taxes. The Treasury Department’s official final figures for the fiscal year are expected in its monthly statement later in October; CBO’s numbers are preliminary estimates based on Daily Treasury Statements.
The significance for the coming lame-duck session is direct: appropriators returning in November will be negotiating full-year fiscal 2027 spending bills against a backdrop in which interest costs are now one of the fastest-growing line items in the federal budget, according to CBO’s data.
2. Appropriations: Government Funded Through December 11
Federal agencies are operating under the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027 (H.R. 6500), enacted as Public Law 119-103. According to the Congressional Research Service overview of the measure, Division A provides continuing appropriations from October 1 through December 11, 2026, generally at fiscal 2026 levels. The Senate approved the measure 90-6 in July and the House followed 370-48, records indicate.
Status: Enacted. The practical effect is that none of the twelve fiscal 2027 appropriations bills has been enacted in full-year form, and Congress faces a December 11 deadline with roughly five legislative weeks available after the election. House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole’s committee has posted FY27 bill text and markup records, but final conference agreements remain unresolved.
Historically, post-election sessions have produced either an omnibus package or a further stopgap into the new year. Which path leadership chooses will likely depend on the election outcome and on whether the two chambers can reconcile differing topline allocations.
3. Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act Becomes Public Law 119-120
On October 7, S. 766, the Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act of 2025, sponsored by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), became Public Law No. 119-120, according to Congress.gov. The enrolled text, available on GovInfo, directs the Office of Management and Budget to require federal agencies to submit annual information on federally funded projects that are significantly over budget or behind schedule.
The required disclosures include a description of each covered project, its contract numbers, the federal share of costs, explanations of scope changes, original and current completion dates, and original and current cost estimates adjusted for inflation. The law is a transparency mandate rather than a spending cut; it does not itself cancel any project.
Status: Enacted. For accountability reporters, the first OMB compilation under this statute should become a primary-source document for identifying federal projects with cost overruns, which TIJ will track as reports are published.
4. CBO Scores Foreign Funding Transparency Act for Nonprofits
On October 13, CBO released its cost estimate for H.R. 9772, the Foreign Funding Transparency Act, as reported by the House Ways and Means Committee on August 27. The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code to require tax-exempt organizations above certain gross-receipts or asset thresholds to report contributions from foreign sources to the IRS, with separate reporting for contributions from entities based in designated countries of concern, including China, Iran, North Korea, and Russia.
The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates the bill would affect revenues by a negligible amount over 2027-2036, and CBO estimates IRS administrative costs of less than $500,000 over 2027-2031. The bill contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined under the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, according to the estimate.
Status: Reported by committee; awaiting House floor action. Track at Congress.gov. The bill is directly relevant to TIJ’s foreign-influence reporting, as it would create, for the first time, a standardized IRS disclosure of foreign money flowing into U.S. nonprofits.
5. SECURE Grid Act: Senate Committee Version Scored at $13 Million
CBO also published on October 13 a cost estimate for H.R. 7257, the SECURE Grid Act, as ordered reported by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on September 30. The House passed its version earlier in the year; the Senate committee’s action moves the bill closer to enactment.
The legislation would reauthorize state energy security plan requirements under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act through September 30, 2031. To remain eligible for State Energy Program funding, states would have to address the physical security, cybersecurity, and resilience of local distribution systems operating at or below 100 kilovolts. CBO estimates implementation would cost $13 million over 2027-2031, mostly through the State Energy Program, with no effect on direct spending or revenues.
Status: Passed House; reported by Senate committee. Track at Congress.gov.
6. Senate Energy Panel’s 20-Bill Markup and the Permitting Deal
The same September 30 Senate Energy and Natural Resources business meeting that advanced the SECURE Grid Act also reported more than twenty measures. According to Legis1’s account of the markup, the committee advanced S. 465, the GRID Power Act, and S. 1568, the Liberating Incandescent Technology Act, on 11-9 roll-call votes, and reported a block of 16 other bills by voice vote.
The GRID Power Act would allow prioritization of dispatchable generation in interconnection queues, a provision Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) argued would have FERC “picking winners and losers,” while Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) said baseload dispatchable power is needed to stabilize the grid. Separately, Lee, Heinrich, Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) announced a bipartisan permitting-reform framework, the American Affordability and Jobs Act, with a Senate vote reported as expected after the November elections.
Status: Reported by committee; placed on Senate calendar. The permitting package has not been formally introduced as a single bill text at this writing, and its schedule depends on lame-duck floor time.
7. Medicare Rural Anesthesiology Bill Carries $199 Million Price Tag
On October 9, CBO released a detailed estimate for H.R. 9642, the Medicare Access to Rural Anesthesiology Act, ordered reported by Ways and Means on July 15. The bill would allow critical access hospitals and small rural hospitals (those with no more than one full-time anesthesiologist and 800 or fewer anesthesia procedures annually) to receive reasonable-cost “pass-through” reimbursement under Medicare Part A for physician anesthesiologists, rather than fee-schedule billing under Part B.
CBO estimates the change would increase net direct spending by $199 million over 2027-2036, with $75 million in the first five years, and projects nearly 1,000 hospitals would switch to the new pathway. The agency notes “considerable uncertainty” because Medicare reports fee-schedule payments by provider rather than by facility. Statutory pay-as-you-go procedures apply.
Status: Reported by committee. Track at Congress.gov. The bill is a modest but illustrative example of rural-health provisions that frequently ride in year-end health extender packages.
8. Farm Bill Parked on the Senate Calendar Until November
The Senate Agriculture Committee’s Agricultural Act of 2026 cleared committee on September 16 on a 12-11 party-line vote and was placed on the Senate legislative calendar on September 24, according to committee records and the National Association of Counties. The House passed its own farm bill vehicle earlier in the year. No Senate floor vote occurred before the pre-election recess.
The two chambers’ bills differ on commodity reference prices, nutrition provisions, and conservation funding, and a conference committee would be needed to reconcile them. With the December 11 appropriations deadline and the permitting package competing for floor time, the farm bill’s prospects in the lame duck remain uncertain; a further extension of the 2018 farm bill’s authorities is a documented fallback Congress has used repeatedly.
Status: Senate bill reported and on calendar; House bill passed. Both await floor and conference action.
9. State Watch: California Enacts Data Center Cost-Allocation and AI Audit Laws
At the state level, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a package the governor’s office describes as “the most comprehensive data center laws in the nation.” According to the governor’s announcement, SB 1168 requires data centers to absorb the costs of their energy use and any utility upgrades they require rather than shifting them to ratepayers, and AB 2383 requires large energy users to pay their share of the cost of serving them.
A separate measure, SB 813, establishes a state framework for certifying independent organizations to assess AI systems for safety and risk, which the governor’s office characterizes as first in the nation. With Congress having so far declined to enact a federal AI preemption statute, California’s approach is likely to become a de facto template that other state legislatures and large utilities reference in 2027 sessions. These laws also intersect directly with the grid-reliability debates now underway in the Senate Energy Committee.
10. Also Scored This Week
CBO’s October 13 batch also included H.R. 9530, the Quiet Skies Act, which would require the Department of Transportation to finalize within 18 months a rule prohibiting voice calls on commercial flights. Because the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2018 already requires such a rule and FCC regulations effectively impose the same prohibition, CBO estimates the cost at less than $500,000 over 2027-2031. Earlier in the week, CBO scored H.R. 8141, the Fair Credit Reporting Reseller Accuracy Act, and H.R. 9613, the Nuclear Advisory Committee Reform Act, both reported by their respective House committees and awaiting floor scheduling.
What TIJ Is Watching
For our accountability beats, three items warrant continued attention. The Billion Dollar Boondoggle Act creates a new annual public record of federal cost overruns that will inform TIJ’s contracting coverage. The Foreign Funding Transparency Act, if it reaches the floor, would give the IRS and the public a structured view of foreign money entering U.S. tax-exempt organizations, a long-standing gap in disclosure. And the December 11 funding deadline, combined with a $2.0 trillion deficit baseline, sets up a lame-duck session in which every appropriations rider and extender will carry fiscal consequences that CBO will be scoring in real time.
Methodology and sourcing: All bill statuses are drawn from Congress.gov and committee records as of October 14, 2026. Cost figures are taken directly from the cited CBO publications. Where third-party reporting is cited, it is identified as such. No subjects of this report were contacted for comment, as it summarizes public legislative records rather than making allegations against any individual.