The bill
Homeland Security and Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026.
HR. 7147, 119th Congress — read as touching Private Prisons & Immigration Detention.
Sponsored by
Rep. Cole, Tom [R-OK-4]
ID: C001053
Follow the money
The bill
HR. 7147, 119th Congress — read as touching Private Prisons & Immigration Detention.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
27 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Introduction" section, p. 40-42 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Became Public Law No: 119-86.
April 29, 2026
📍 Current Status
This bill has become law!
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
Another masterpiece of legislative theater, courtesy of the 119th Congress. Let's dissect this monstrosity, shall we?
The "Further Additional Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026" - what a mouthful. I'm sure the title alone is enough to put even the most ardent policy wonk into a coma. But fear not, dear reader, for I shall guide you through the labyrinthine world of congressional doublespeak.
Section 2 of this bill amends the Continuing Appropriations Act, 2026, by striking the date specified in section 106(3) and inserting "May 22, 2026". Ah, yes, because nothing says "fiscal responsibility" like kicking the can down the road for another few weeks. It's a classic case of "temporizing," where our esteemed lawmakers pretend to address the issue while actually doing nothing.
The total funding amounts are, of course, a closely guarded secret - or rather, a mess of obfuscation and accounting tricks that would make even the most seasoned Enron executive blush. But let's take a closer look at Section 4, which makes available funds for personnel pay, allowances, and benefits in each department and agency. It's a clever move, really - by allocating funds for personnel costs, our lawmakers can claim they're supporting the troops (or rather, the bureaucrats) while actually just perpetuating the status quo.
As for key programs and agencies receiving funds, it's the usual suspects: defense contractors, agricultural subsidies, and of course, the obligatory nod to "essential government services" - code for "whatever pet project our lobbyist friends are pushing this week". Notable increases or decreases from previous years? Ha! Don't make me laugh. This is just a shell game, where they shuffle the numbers around to make it look like something's changing.
Now, let's talk about riders and policy provisions attached to funding. Ah, yes - the infamous "policy riders" that allow our lawmakers to sneak in their favorite pet projects under the radar. It's like a legislative Trojan horse, where they hide the real agenda behind a facade of fiscal responsibility. And what's the fiscal impact and deficit implications of this bill? *chuckles* Oh, please, don't worry about that. The national debt is just a minor detail, a mere trifle compared to the importance of re-election campaigns and pork barrel spending.
In conclusion, HR 7147 is a textbook example of legislative malpractice - a cynical exercise in kicking the can down the road, while pretending to address the nation's fiscal woes. It's a disease, really - a chronic case of "Fiscal Irresponsibility Syndrome" (FIS), characterized by symptoms such as reckless spending, accounting tricks, and a complete disregard for the long-term consequences of their actions.
And what's the prognosis? *sigh* Unfortunately, it's terminal. The patient (i.e., the American taxpayer) will continue
Rep. Cole, Tom [R-OK-4]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No PAC contributions found
No committee contributions found
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 53 nodes and 27 connections (57 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $414,600
Showing top 24 donors by contribution amount
Which industries are materially affected by specific provisions in this bill. 7 helped, 3 harmed.
Sec. 227 prohibits using funds to prevent individuals from importing prescription drugs from Canada, which could reduce demand for private prison services related to drug enforcement.
Title III provides $2,218,634,000 for Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency operations and support, and $386,464,000 for procurement, construction, and improvements, directly benefiting cybersecurity industry.
Sec. 207 restricts procurement/deployment of non-autonomous surveillance systems under Border Security Assets and Infrastructure, limiting surveillance tech vendors.
Title III includes $99,750,000 for Public Transportation Security Assistance, Railroad Security Assistance, and Over-the-Road Bus Security Assistance, directly supporting surface transportation security.
Sec. 520 restricts federal law enforcement officers from facilitating transfer of operable firearms to individuals suspected of being drug cartel agents without continuous monitoring, potentially affecting firearms sales to law enforcement.
Title II includes funding for Coast Guard procurement of MQ-9 aircraft and associated equipment ($98,000,000), which benefits aerospace manufacturers through defense-related aviation contracts.
+ 4 more industries not shown.
For each industry this bill affects, here's what the sponsor (Rep. Cole, Tom [R-OK-4])received from donors associated with that industry during the 2022–present cycles. Donations are not proof of intent — they are a record of who funds the people writing the law.
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.
— 7 — Foreword Instead, party leaders negotiate one multitrillion-dollar spending bill—several thousand pages long—and then vote on it before anyone, literally, has had a chance to read it. Debate time is restricted. Amendments are prohibited. And all of this is backed up against a midnight deadline when the previous “omnibus” spending bill will run out and the federal government “shuts down.” This process is not designed to empower 330 million American citizens and their elected representatives, but rather to empower the party elites secretly nego- tiating without any public scrutiny or oversight. In the end, congressional leaders’ behavior and incentives here are no differ- ent from those of global elites insulating policy decisions—over the climate, trade, public health, you name it—from the sovereignty of national electorates. Public scrutiny and democratic accountability make life harder for policymakers—so they skirt it. It’s not dysfunction; it’s corruption. And despite its gaudy price tag, the federal budget is not even close to the worst example of this corruption. That distinction belongs to the “Administrative State,” the dismantling of which must a top priority for the next conservative President. The term Administrative State refers to the policymaking work done by the bureaucracies of all the federal government’s departments, agencies, and millions of employees. Under Article I of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” That is, federal law is enacted only by elected legislators in both houses of Congress. This exclusive authority was part of the Framers’ doctrine of “separated powers.” They not only split the federal government’s legislative, executive, and judicial powers into different branches. They also gave each branch checks over the others. Under our Constitution, the legislative branch—Congress—is far and away the most powerful and, correspondingly, the most accountable to the people. In recent decades, members of the House and Senate discovered that if they give away that power to the Article II branch of government, they can also deny responsi- bility for its actions. So today in Washington, most policy is no longer set by Congress at all, but by the Administrative State. Given the choice between being powerful but vulnerable or irrelevant but famous, most Members of Congress have chosen the latter. Congress passes intentionally vague laws that delegate decision-making over a given issue to a federal agency. That agency’s bureaucrats—not just unelected but seemingly un-fireable—then leap at the chance to fill the vacuum created by Congress’s preening cowardice. The federal government is growing larger and less constitutionally accountable—even to the President—every year. l A combination of elected and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangles domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rulemaking processes;
— 7 — Foreword Instead, party leaders negotiate one multitrillion-dollar spending bill—several thousand pages long—and then vote on it before anyone, literally, has had a chance to read it. Debate time is restricted. Amendments are prohibited. And all of this is backed up against a midnight deadline when the previous “omnibus” spending bill will run out and the federal government “shuts down.” This process is not designed to empower 330 million American citizens and their elected representatives, but rather to empower the party elites secretly nego- tiating without any public scrutiny or oversight. In the end, congressional leaders’ behavior and incentives here are no differ- ent from those of global elites insulating policy decisions—over the climate, trade, public health, you name it—from the sovereignty of national electorates. Public scrutiny and democratic accountability make life harder for policymakers—so they skirt it. It’s not dysfunction; it’s corruption. And despite its gaudy price tag, the federal budget is not even close to the worst example of this corruption. That distinction belongs to the “Administrative State,” the dismantling of which must a top priority for the next conservative President. The term Administrative State refers to the policymaking work done by the bureaucracies of all the federal government’s departments, agencies, and millions of employees. Under Article I of the Constitution, “All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.” That is, federal law is enacted only by elected legislators in both houses of Congress. This exclusive authority was part of the Framers’ doctrine of “separated powers.” They not only split the federal government’s legislative, executive, and judicial powers into different branches. They also gave each branch checks over the others. Under our Constitution, the legislative branch—Congress—is far and away the most powerful and, correspondingly, the most accountable to the people. In recent decades, members of the House and Senate discovered that if they give away that power to the Article II branch of government, they can also deny responsi- bility for its actions. So today in Washington, most policy is no longer set by Congress at all, but by the Administrative State. Given the choice between being powerful but vulnerable or irrelevant but famous, most Members of Congress have chosen the latter. Congress passes intentionally vague laws that delegate decision-making over a given issue to a federal agency. That agency’s bureaucrats—not just unelected but seemingly un-fireable—then leap at the chance to fill the vacuum created by Congress’s preening cowardice. The federal government is growing larger and less constitutionally accountable—even to the President—every year. l A combination of elected and unelected bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency quietly strangles domestic energy production through difficult-to-understand rulemaking processes; — 8 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise l Bureaucrats at the Department of Homeland Security, following the lead of a feckless Administration, order border and immigration enforcement agencies to help migrants criminally enter our country with impunity; l Bureaucrats at the Department of Education inject racist, anti-American, ahistorical propaganda into America’s classrooms; l Bureaucrats at the Department of Justice force school districts to undermine girls’ sports and parents’ rights to satisfy transgender extremists; l Woke bureaucrats at the Pentagon force troops to attend “training” seminars about “white privilege”; and l Bureaucrats at the State Department infuse U.S. foreign aid programs with woke extremism about “intersectionality” and abortion.3 Unaccountable federal spending is the secret lifeblood of the Great Awokening. Nearly every power center held by the Left is funded or supported, one way or another, through the bureaucracy by Congress. Colleges and school districts are funded by tax dollars. The Administrative State holds 100 percent of its power at the sufferance of Congress, and its insulation from presidential discipline is an unconstitutional fairy tale spun by the Washington Establishment to protect its turf. Members of Congress shield themselves from constitutional accountability often when the White House allows them to get away with it. Cultural institutions like public libraries and public health agencies are only as “independent” from public accountability as elected officials and voters permit. Let’s be clear: The most egregious regulations promulgated by the current Administration come from one place: the Oval Office. The President cannot hide behind the agencies; as his many executive orders make clear, his is the respon- sibility for the regulations that threaten American communities, schools, and families. A conservative President must move swiftly to do away with these vast abuses of presidential power and remove the career and political bureaucrats who fuel it. Properly considered, restoring fiscal limits and constitutional accountability to the federal government is a continuation of restoring national sovereignty to the American people. In foreign affairs, global strategy, federal budgeting and pol- icymaking, the same pattern emerges again and again. Ruling elites slash and tear at restrictions and accountability placed on them. They centralize power up and away from the American people: to supra-national treaties and organizations, to left-wing “experts,” to sight-unseen all-or-nothing legislating, to the unelected career bureaucrats of the Administrative State.
Policy matches are calculated using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text. A score of 60% or higher indicates meaningful thematic overlap. This does not imply direct causation or intent, but highlights areas where legislation aligns with Project 2025 policy objectives.
Commerce, Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior and Environment Appropriations Act, 2026
119/hr/6938
To provide for the equitable settlement of certain Indian land disputes regarding land in Illinois, and for other purposes.
119/hr/2827
Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026
119/hr/7148
A bill to require a briefing on increasing procurement of strategic and critical materials from sources in the United States.
A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval of the proposed foreign military sale to the Government of Israel of certain defense articles and services.
Establishing the congressional budget for the United States Government for fiscal year 2025 and setting forth the appropriate budgetary levels for fiscal years 2026 through 2034.