Partial Federal Shutdown Begins After the Senate Passes a Funding Package the House Has Not Yet Voted On
Shortly after midnight on January 31, 2026, the United States federal government entered a partial shutdown. The law that had ended the long 2025 shutdown funded most agencies only through January 30, and when that funding expired the House of Representatives had not yet voted on the package the Senate had just passed, so the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) began shutdown procedures.
On January 30, the Senate passed a compromise by 71 votes to 29: five full-year appropriations bills funding most agencies through September, with the Department of Homeland Security given only a two-week extension so both parties could keep negotiating immigration enforcement reforms. The House was in recess and was not due to return until Monday, February 2, and Speaker Mike Johnson had already said a brief funding lapse was likely unavoidable.
The lapse grew out of the dispute over immigration enforcement in Minneapolis. After Border Patrol officers fatally shot Alex Pretti in Minneapolis on January 24, Senate Democrats withdrew support for the Homeland Security appropriations bill and demanded new restrictions on immigration enforcement, including an end to roving patrols, body cameras for agents, a ban on masks, and searches based on judicial warrants rather than internal ones. After talks stalled, negotiators agreed on January 29 to separate the Homeland Security bill and move the other five bills first.
The lapse covered departments funded by the pending bills, including the Departments of War, State, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, Treasury and Homeland Security, while agencies that had already received full-year funding were unaffected. Because the lapse began over a weekend, it was widely expected at the time that the practical impact would be limited if the House passed the Senate version quickly after returning.
Related: Border Patrol Officers Fatally Shoot Alex Pretti, a 37-Year-Old Nurse, in Minneapolis
Source: U.S. Congress
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国国会大厦西立面全景（资料照片）。Noclip 摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库标准图。 / Photo: Full view of the west front of the United States Capitol in Washington (file photo). Photo by Noclip, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; standard image from the GSM federal fixed-image library.
