H.R. 5371

NOVEMBER 26, 2025

H.R. 5371: A BAND-AID ON A BROKEN BUDGET, AND WHY IT STILL MATTERS

On November 12, after six anxious weeks of a partial federal shutdown, President Trump signed H.R. 5371 – the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026 – into law.

The headlines framed it as simple: “Government reopens.” But for families on Main Street, H.R. 5371 is not just a procedural fix. It’s a temporary lifeline in a system that keeps putting everyday people on the bargaining table.

WHAT H.R. 5371 ACTUALLY DOES

H.R. 5371 does three big things:

Ends the 2025 shutdown and keeps most of the federal government funded through January 30, 2026 at roughly 2025 levels, using a “continuing resolution” (CR).
Provides full-year funding for key areas – Agriculture (including many nutrition and rural programs), Military Construction–VA, and the Legislative Branch.
Extends a long list of expiring authorities, including public health, Medicare and Medicaid provisions, certain cybersecurity programs, Defense Production Act authorities, FDA user fees, and more – the quiet plumbing that keeps hospitals reimbursed, clinics open, and critical infrastructure secure.

Crucially, the law also guarantees back pay and protections for federal employees who were laid off or furloughed during the shutdown, and bars agencies from using the shutdown as a pretext for permanent reductions in force through January 30.

WHY THAT MATTERS ON MAIN STREET

Shutdowns are often framed as abstract “Washington drama.” On the ground, they land like a slow-moving disaster.

During the October–November 2025 shutdown, air traffic controllers and other “essential” workers kept showing up without pay, picking up gig work on the side to keep the lights on. Families relying on SNAP and WIC watched the calendar, wondering if their food benefits would suddenly stop as states scrambled to plug the gap. Nonprofits and food banks tried to stretch already-thin resources while demand surged.

By restoring funding and back pay, H.R. 5371:

Puts paychecks back into the hands of federal workers and contractors whose spending keeps local economies alive.
Stabilizes nutrition programs that keep children fed and elders from going hungry.
Keeps veterans’ health care, housing, and benefits moving instead of stalling in bureaucratic limbo.
Prevents abrupt cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and public health programs that would otherwise ripple through clinics and hospitals.

In other words: this bill doesn’t solve our deeper inequities—but it stops an avoidable crisis from getting even worse.

WHAT’S STILL BROKEN

From a justice perspective, H.R. 5371 is necessary—but not sufficient.

It expires on January 30, 2026, meaning shutdown brinkmanship could return in just a few months.
Funding mostly holds at prior-year levels rather than meeting the rising costs of housing, food, health care, and climate-driven disasters that hit Black, Brown, rural, and working-class communities hardest.
Governing by short-term CRs keeps agencies in permanent “survival mode,” delaying long-term investments in public health, climate resilience, affordable housing, and community safety.

For many nonprofit organizations, that reality shows up in their inboxes: community partners asking how they’ll keep their pantries stocked, keep organizers employed, or keep a neighborhood clinic’s doors open if Congress once again turns basic governance into a hostage situation.

WHAT PROGRESS FOR ALL CAN SAY

As a 501(C)(3), we don’t endorse candidates or parties. But we can tell the truth about structures, incentives, and impact:

Shutdowns are a policy choice, not an act of God. When Congress refuses to pass sustainable, equitable budgets, families, workers, and community institutions pay the price.
Continuing resolutions are emergency tools, not a governing philosophy. H.R. 5371 ends a crisis, but it should also be a warning flare: we need durable, justice-centered budgeting that doesn’t treat food, health care, and veterans’ services as expendable leverage.
Communities of color and low-wealth communities are always asked to absorb the shock first. When SNAP payments are threatened, when VA services slow, when federal workers go unpaid, the pain sits on neighborhoods that already live closest to the economic edge.

H.R. 5371 is, at best, a pause button. But inside that pause is possibility. If we use this breathing room to organize, educate, and imagine better, we can push for a federal budget that doesn’t just restart the machine—but reorients it toward dignity, equity, and love of neighbor.

SOURCES

THE GLOSS

H.R. 5371 is a short-term money patch the government used to stop a total shutdown, but it still leaves poor and working people—especially Black, brown, and immigrant families—one crisis away from losing food, housing, or health care again.
The same leaders who protect tax breaks for billion-dollar corporations let programs like SNAP, housing help, and Medicaid sit on the chopping block, showing how a global system of white supremacy keeps wealth at the top and suffering at the bottom.
Every “budget fight” is really a power fight over whose lives matter, and right now the rules are written so that mostly white, rich, and well-connected people stay safe while communities of color and poor folks keep paying the price.

Call to Action: Tell Congress, “No more shutdown threats—fully fund food, housing, health care, and jobs for our people, and make the wealthy pay their fair share.”
#ReleaseTheEpsteinFiles

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H.R. 5371

NOVEMBER 26, 2025

H.R. 5371: A BAND-AID ON A BROKEN BUDGET, AND WHY IT STILL MATTERS

On November 12, after six anxious weeks of a partial federal shutdown, President Trump signed H.R. 5371 – the Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Legislative Branch, Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs, and Extensions Act, 2026 – into law.

The headlines framed it as simple: “Government reopens.” But for families on Main Street, H.R. 5371 is not just a procedural fix. It’s a temporary lifeline in a system that keeps putting everyday people on the bargaining table.

WHAT H.R. 5371 ACTUALLY DOES

H.R. 5371 does three big things:

Ends the 2025 shutdown and keeps most of the federal government funded through January 30, 2026 at roughly 2025 levels, using a “continuing resolution” (CR).

Provides full-year funding for key areas – Agriculture (including many nutrition and rural programs), Military Construction–VA, and the Legislative Branch.

Crucially, the law also guarantees back pay and protections for federal employees who were laid off or furloughed during the shutdown, and bars agencies from using the shutdown as a pretext for permanent reductions in force through January 30.

WHY THAT MATTERS ON MAIN STREET

Shutdowns are often framed as abstract “Washington drama.” On the ground, they land like a slow-moving disaster.

By restoring funding and back pay, H.R. 5371:

Puts paychecks back into the hands of federal workers and contractors whose spending keeps local economies alive.

Stabilizes nutrition programs that keep children fed and elders from going hungry.

Keeps veterans’ health care, housing, and benefits moving instead of stalling in bureaucratic limbo.

Prevents abrupt cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and public health programs that would otherwise ripple through clinics and hospitals.

In other words: this bill doesn’t solve our deeper inequities—but it stops an avoidable crisis from getting even worse.

WHAT’S STILL BROKEN

From a justice perspective, H.R. 5371 is necessary—but not sufficient.

It expires on January 30, 2026, meaning shutdown brinkmanship could return in just a few months.

Funding mostly holds at prior-year levels rather than meeting the rising costs of housing, food, health care, and climate-driven disasters that hit Black, Brown, rural, and working-class communities hardest.

Governing by short-term CRs keeps agencies in permanent “survival mode,” delaying long-term investments in public health, climate resilience, affordable housing, and community safety.

For many nonprofit organizations, that reality shows up in their inboxes: community partners asking how they’ll keep their pantries stocked, keep organizers employed, or keep a neighborhood clinic’s doors open if Congress once again turns basic governance into a hostage situation.

WHAT PROGRESS FOR ALL CAN SAY

As a 501(C)(3), we don’t endorse candidates or parties. But we can tell the truth about structures, incentives, and impact:

Shutdowns are a policy choice, not an act of God. When Congress refuses to pass sustainable, equitable budgets, families, workers, and community institutions pay the price.

Continuing resolutions are emergency tools, not a governing philosophy. H.R. 5371 ends a crisis, but it should also be a warning flare: we need durable, justice-centered budgeting that doesn’t treat food, health care, and veterans’ services as expendable leverage.

Communities of color and low-wealth communities are always asked to absorb the shock first. When SNAP payments are threatened, when VA services slow, when federal workers go unpaid, the pain sits on neighborhoods that already live closest to the economic edge.

H.R. 5371 is, at best, a pause button. But inside that pause is possibility. If we use this breathing room to organize, educate, and imagine better, we can push for a federal budget that doesn’t just restart the machine—but reorients it toward dignity, equity, and love of neighbor.

SOURCES

THE GLOSS