WASHINGTON — Whether they supported the legislation or not, Minnesota’s lawmakers won approval of a modest amount of money for local projects in the bill that reopened the federal government last week.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, Democrats who voted against the bill, secured $1.7 million for an Alexandria area YMCA, $1 million for a veterinarian diagnostics laboratory in Willmar for the University of Minnesota, another $1 million for an Apple Tree early learning center in Virginia and a few other earmarks.
“This funding would make a huge difference in our ability to stop avian flu in its tracks and protect our farmers and animals,” Smith said of the funding of the veterinarian clinic.
Meanwhile, Rep. Angie Craig, D-2nd District, secured $1 million for a public safety project in Le Sueur and $1 million for a project in New Prague. And Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-7th District, won approval of $4,167,900 for a water treatment project in Kandiyohi County and $1 million for another water program in Plummer.
Related: Klobuchar, Smith seek seek funding for hundreds of local projects via earmarks
There are other earmarks in the legislation that were sought by Minnesota’s congressional delegation for a total of about $17 million in special projects.
But that falls short of the tens of millions of dollars the state’s federal lawmakers have asked for to fund local projects. Still, they are the first earmarks Congress has approved in a long time, and there’s no guarantee there will be others.
Why? Because the funding for special projects are included in appropriations bills and there are doubts that Congress will be able to approve many more of them — besides the three that were attached to the shutdown bill.
Democrats warn that any partisan demands from Trump or hard-liners in the House could deadlock the effort to reach agreements on the nine bills left.
The three appropriations bills that were approved will fund the Agriculture Department, the Food and Drug Administration and Department of Veterans Affairs for nearly a full year and contain some of the earmarks the Minnesota congressional delegation sought.
But prospects for the approval of other appropriations bills are dim in this highly polarized Congress.
William Hoagland, senior vice president of the Bipartisan Policy Center, said President Donald Trump’s failure to submit a complete budget — instead of a wish list of cuts in social programs and a boost in military and border spending — also led to the chaos in Congress’ appropriation process.
“If you don’t have a blueprint for building a house, you can’t build a house,” Hoagland said.
He also said the continuing fight over the extension of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that would help 90,000 Minnesotans cope with rising health insurance premiums will likely continue to stand in the way of congressional attempts to fund the government. Democrats withheld their support of a short-term GOP bill to fund the government for 43 days before eight Democratic senators broke rank to help pass a modified version of the legislation last week.
Senate Majority Leader Jon Thune, R-S.D., has promised Democrats a vote on the extension of ACA subsidies. But no such promise has been made by GOP leaders in the U.S. House. And Trump, who has said he wants to scuttle the ACA, is not likely to sign the legislation.
Hoagland said the continued failure of Congress to approve the ACA subsidies will prompt Democrats — including the eight in the U.S. Senate who voted to end the shutdown — to make a stand again.
Although a handful of federal agencies have received full funding, the rest are running on a short-term spending bill that expires on Jan. 30.
Hoagland predicts another shutdown then.
“We are in for another donnybrook in January,” he said.
Food stamps — which were suddenly cut off for 42 million Americans during the shutdown — and other programs would be protected if the federal government shutters again.
But hundreds of thousands of federal workers would once again go unpaid, there would once again be chaos in the nation’s airports, heating assistance for low-income families would be cut off, Head Start programs across the nation would close and other pain would be visited on Americans again if there’s another shutdown.
Hoagland also said it would be tough, and maybe impossible, for Trump to shift money around again to pay members of the military during another shutdown.
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A ‘doom and gloomer’
Congress has not passed all 12 appropriations bills that would fund the federal government since 1997, relying repeatedly on continuing resolutions, or CRs, that would fund federal agencies at — more or less — previous funding levels or huge omnibus bills with little scrutiny or debate.
The failure to approve even a single appropriations bill brought the federal government to a standstill on Oct. 1, the first day of the federal government’s 2026 fiscal year.
No appropriations bills were approved for fiscal year 2025, either. Instead, the federal government was funded by one short-term CR after another and Minnesota lawmakers could not deliver on promises made to local governments and nonprofits to seek money for their projects.
So, the few earmarks in the legislation that ended the shutdown last week were heralded.
For instance, Rep. Pete Stauber, R-8th District, announced in a release that he secured $1.37 million for an effort to improve the water system in Harris.
“As our northern communities continue to grow, reliable, up-to-date water systems are critical for economic success and long-term sustainability,” Stauber said. “Harris residents deserve dependability, so I’m proud to deliver this funding to strengthen essential infrastructure and protect public safety in the Eighth District.”
Meanwhile, Harris Mayor Randy Carlson said the money for his town “directly addresses some of our most pressing infrastructure needs.”
Related: Minnesota among states facing Trump administration sanctions for releasing SNAP benefits
Stauber said the lone earmark is only one of 15 local projects whose funding he has requested and that other projects are still being considered under the remaining fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills, “which Congress will be deliberating over the next few weeks.”
Yet Hoagland said approval of most — if any — of those bills is doubtful, especially since Congress has scheduled plenty of time off during the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
So, Hoagland is preparing for another shutdown, which he predicts will be as long, or even longer, than the one that just ended.
“I guess I’m a gloom and doomer on this issue,” he said.
He’s not the only one preparing for another lengthy government shutdown.
“Everyone realizes, under current law, another shutdown could occur on Jan. 30,” said Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the head of the far-right House Freedom Caucus.
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