House Appropriations Committee advances FY26 line items, holds several grant programs for further review

The House Appropriations Committee met Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, and by consensus agreed to close a series of FY26 departmental line items while leaving several grant programs and larger projects open for further review as the committee prepares the fiscal year 2026 budget.

Committee member 1, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, opened the meeting by noting the scheduling constraints and the committee’s task: "This is the House Appropriations Committee. It is Friday, 02/28/2025. ... we're gonna have 1 more round before we go home for town meeting" and asked members to identify items they were prepared to close.

The committee worked through a batch of administrative and service budgets—identified in the budget book as B112, B113 (including B113.1 engineering capital projects), B114, B115, B117, B119, B120 and related B1xx items—and members said those items could be closed because changes were limited to small personal‑service adjustments or routine transfers. Committee member 2 described the multi‑year trend in those accounts as “pretty flat across the last 4 years.”

At the same time the committee left several items open for follow‑up. Members put agriculture grant lines (including the Working…