Affordable housing contract payments, renewals, and more: Find information to help answer critical shutdown-related questions and access contacts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in this members-only resource.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) memo QSO-26-01-ALL, released October 1, provides details on survey and certification activities contingency plans related to a lapse in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026. Survey and certification activities for home health and hospice will be limited during the shutdown, as we explain here.

Key Medicare and Medicare Advantage program functions are expected to continue while the government is closed, however, support delivered to beneficiaries–answering questions and addressing issues–may be delayed. Details here.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)’s memo QSO-26-01-ALL, released October 1, provides details on state survey and certification activities contingency plans related to a lapse in appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026.  Explanation and analysis here. 

As the end of fiscal year 2025 approaches, Congress has not reached agreement on appropriations for fiscal year 2026. Here’s an overview of what a government shutdown would mean for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and LeadingAge members based on the agency’s plan released late on September 30, 2025.

What home health providers need to know about the impacts to telehealth and hospital at home should the government shut down at midnight September 30, 2025. Click here for details.

With the looming government shutdown, here is what hospice and palliative care members need to know related to telehealth extensions and more. Click here for details.

As the end of fiscal year 2025 approaches, Congress has not reached agreement on appropriations for fiscal year 2026. Updated on September 29, 2025, here’s an overview of what a government shutdown would mean for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and LeadingAge members.

A September 24 memo emailed from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to cabinet secretaries spells out how the administration will use any government shutdown as an “opportunity to consider Reduction in Force (RIF) notices for all employees in programs, projects, or activities” whose funding lapses on October 1, 2025, has no other source of funding, and are “not consistent with the President’s priorities.” More here.

With the end of the federal fiscal year fast approaching on September 30, Congress has not yet come to an agreement on a continuing resolution (CR) to temporarily fund the government until new legislation can be passed and signed into law. Typically, the government and its agencies will prepare contingency plans outlining how essential government services will operate during a shutdown. To date, neither departmental contingency plans nor agency lapse plans have been publicly released for fiscal year 2026 (FY26). Read on for what this means and how it could impact LeadingAge members. 

House Republicans on September 19, 2025 passed HR 5371 The Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026. a bill that, as reported earlier this week (see below), would keep the government funded through November 21. … The Senate, as per a deal reached by Leader John Thune (R-SD) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), then voted on both the continuing resolution (CR) that passed the House (HR 5371) and the Democrats’ proposed Continuing Appropriations and Extensions and Other Matters Act, 2026 (HR 5450/S.2882). Both bills failed; in order for either bill to pass, a 60 vote majority was needed–and was not attained. S. 2882 failed 47-45 with 8 Republican Senators not voting. HR 5371 failed 44-48, with 8 Republican Senators not voting. Both chambers are now in recess until September 29th when the Senate will return. More here.

As a counterpoint to House Republicans’ September 16 continuing resolution (CR), one day later, House and Senate Democrats proposed a CR that would fund the federal government, reverse H.R. 1’s cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare funding, and extend the enhanced premium tax credits for health insurance purchased through Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace. More here.

The House Appropriations Committee on September 16 released the text of the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2026, a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund the government through November 21, 2025. The vote is expected to be tight. Democrats have voiced their opposition to the House CR, and said they will propose their own CR. Learn more about strategies being considered around a vote and the House CR’s content. 

With the October 1 start of fiscal year 2026 fast approaching, the White House on September 9, 2025 submitted to Congress its list of funding anomalies–that is, the programs the administration wants Congress to fund at different spending levels under a continuing resolution (CR). … The White House’s request reflects anomalies needed by programs through January 2026, signaling the White House would support a CR that runs through January. Details here.

Congress is not expected to negotiate differences between the very different Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills that have been passed out of the House and Senate appropriations committees before the October 1 start of the next fiscal year. However, this is a prime time for stakeholders to use LeadingAge’s action alert to implore elected officials to support the Senate committee’s funding levels over the House’s. More here.

The House Appropriations Committee issued a notice of its mark up schedule conveying that the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), Education and Related Agencies will markup its version of the fiscal year 2026 (FY26) Labor-HHS-Education spending bill on Tuesday, September 2, at 5 p.m. ET. Details here.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) housing programs found support in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s fiscal year 2026 HUD funding bill, which passed out of the Committee on July 24. The Senate Committee bill is different than the one passed by the House Appropriations Committee on July 17. In addition to providing more funding for HUD, it does not include the House Committee’s sweeping and potentially harmful flexibilities for how housing authorities run the nation’s public housing and housing choice voucher programs. Read our analysis here.

The House Committee on Appropriations voted its fiscal year 2026 (FY26) Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding bill out of Committee on July 17, 2025 by a party line of 35 to 28. Committee members made minor changes to the bill’s HUD provisions but none that ameliorated the bill’s insufficient resources for housing choice voucher renewals, cuts to public housing funding, and elimination of funding for the HOME program. The bill would also eliminate funding for the Older Adult Home Modification Program, cut funding for fair housing and housing counseling programs, and come up short on funding for Homeless Assistance Grants. Read more here.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development on July 14, 2025 voted to move its fiscal year 2026 HUD funding bill to the full House Appropriations Committee, which will consider the bill on July 17. The bill would eliminate funding for some HUD programs, cut funding for others, and allow public housing authorities to fundamentally change how the public housing and housing choice voucher programs operate. More here.

Hearings this week on the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD’s) fiscal year 2026 budget request to Congress surfaced both considerable disillusionment with HUD’s paltry FY26 request as well as comradery, among some members of Congress, with LeadingAge’s priorities.

The Republican House Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development (THUD) and Senate THUD appropriations subcommittee chairs both expressed levels of deep concern and disillusionment with HUD’s request for 43.6% less funding in FY26 than it has for FY25, the the agency’s proposal to merge its five largest housing assistance programs into one block grant to states– with 42% less funding than the programs collectively have in FY25–and with HUD’s requests to eliminate the Home Investment Partnerships (HOME) Program and Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) program, while also cutting its homeless assistance and fair housing programs. More details, here.

The White House has asked Congress to shed from federal administration and oversight the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) five largest housing assistance programs, to eliminate funding altogether for HUD’s main housing and community development block grant programs, to cut and hamstring funding to prevent and end homelessness, to cut by more than half fair housing funding, and to eliminate and cut funding other HUD programs, details released in a May 30 appendix to the May 2 ‘skinny’ budget shows, More here.

The House Appropriations Committee’s markup schedule for the House’s fiscal year 2026 (FY26) appropriations bills includes a July 7 markup by the Transportation, HUD, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of its Subcommittee bill, and a full Committee markup on July 10. The Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee is scheduled to markup its Subcommittee bill on July 21, with a full Committee markup on July 24. President Trump’s FY26 budget requests to Congress, dubbed “skinny” because of the lack of detail, seeks deep cuts for both agencies (a 43.6% cut to HUD and a 26.2% cut to HHS). See our May 23 article for more detail.

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on May 15 testified before the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education for a hearing on the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Fiscal Year 2026 budget request. A so-called “skinny budget” document submitted to Congress would reduce DOL’s discretionary budget to $8.6 billion for FY2026, compared to its current $13.3 billion. Get the details here.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended his fiscal year 2026 (FY26) budget proposal to cut over $30 billion from HHS during two congressional hearings on May 14 before the House Appropriations Committee‘s Subcommittee on Health and the Senate HELP Committee. Read the details here.

House Financial Services Subcommittee Chair Mike Flood’s May 14 statement comes at a time when the White House is requesting a 43.6% cut to the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s  fiscal year 2026 appropriation.  LeadingAge contends that public subsidy is needed. Read more here.

The White House issued its “skinny” budget proposal to Congress on May 2 highlighting the Trump administration’s priorities for fiscal year 2026 (FY26), which begins October 1. The proposal specifically includes a 26% cut to the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) discretionary budget. Many of the funding cuts requested in the skinny budget reflect similar reductions in funding and the elimination or consolidation of programs outlined in the April 10 leaked HHS budget draft. Read more here.

The skinny budget request, which is devoid of details to fully understand its reasoning and impact, asks Congress to block grant the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) rental assistance programs to states and provide them with 42% less in funding to run these programs compared to FY25 funding. Read more here.