The Senate Appropriations Committee on Oct. 12, 2025, voted to report favorably the Commerce, Justice, Science and related agencies (CJS) fiscal year 2026 appropriations bill, while senators sparred over whether funds set aside by Congress for a previously selected FBI site can be redirected to the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington.

Chair Collins, Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, opened the session by describing the three bills under consideration and said the CJS bill funds law enforcement programs, scientific research and weather and ocean programs. Vice Chair Murray, Vice Chair of the committee, described the bills as “bipartisan compromise starting points” and urged colleagues to advance them to protect programs such as food safety, rural housing and scientific research.

Senator Moran, chair of the CJS subcommittee, presented the bill, saying the measure balances targeted cuts with investments and that roughly half of the committee's modest increase is dedicated to decennial Census work. Moran listed priorities protected or advanced in the bill, including maintaining funding for core federal law enforcement components in the Department of Justice and investing in NASA, NOAA and the National Science Foundation.

A major point of contention was an amendment offered by Senator Van Hollen. Van Hollen's amendment would prohibit funds made available by the bill or related bills from being used to construct an FBI headquarters at any site other than the one selected through a prior competitive process. Van Hollen said the amendment was intended to protect "longstanding bipartisan congressional decisions" about funds the committee had set aside for a site selected through a multi-year process and warned the change proposed by the administration amounts to "a rescission by another name." Senator Van Hollen said members had relied on a bipartisan, expert-driven selection process that produced a Greenbelt, Maryland campus as a finalist.

Supporters of the amendment, including Vice Chair Murray and several members who described the site-selection process as lengthy and bipartisan, argued the committee should protect congressional intent and the funding set aside for the selected campus. Opponents, including Senator Mullen, said the FBI and GSA have expertise to determine security needs and that Congress should not micromanage site selection.

The committee adopted Van Hollen's amendment on a roll-call vote, 15 ayes to 14 nays. The committee then voted to report the CJS bill favorably; the clerk announced the initial tally as 21 ayes and 6 nays on the motion to report the bill. Several senators later sought to change recorded votes as negotiations continued, and the full committee left the bill temporarily pending additional discussions.

The bill as marked funds an increase in CJS spending described in the markup as roughly $279,000,000 above FY2025 levels (about 0.37%), with described targeted cuts to Commerce bureaus and some DOJ components while protecting core federal law enforcement accounts and adding specific increases such as $20,000,000 for U.S. Marshals judicial and courthouse security and $10,000,000 for a grant program to remove judges' personal information from public sources. Moran and Van Hollen also stressed funding for NOAA and the National Weather Service and protections against workforce reductions at the Weather Service.

The committee permitted members to change their votes depending on later amendment outcomes and left the CJS bill subject to further negotiation before final approval for transmittal to the Senate floor.

Ending: The CJS markup underscored bipartisan agreement on many programmatic priorities but highlighted an unresolved dispute over executive branch reprogramming of funds for a high-profile construction project. Senators said they would continue negotiations before moving the bill to the full Senate.