DHS Funding Lapses February 14 as the Only Department Without Appropriations
On February 14, 2026, annual appropriations for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lapsed, producing a partial government shutdown affecting a single department. By then, every other annual appropriations bill had been enacted, leaving Homeland Security as the only federal department without full-year funding.
The lapse followed several rounds of stopgap extensions. On January 30, the Senate passed a funding package by 71-29 that replaced the full-year DHS appropriations bill with a two-week continuing resolution extension; on February 3, the House agreed to the Senate amendment by 217-214, and President Trump signed it into law the same day as Public Law 119-75, extending DHS funding only through February 13. When that extension expired without new funding, DHS annual appropriations lapsed on February 14.
According to a U.S. Customs and Border Protection fact sheet on the lapse, the Senate failed to secure the 60 votes required to pass its funding bill before the continuing resolution expired at 11:59 p.m. on February 13. The standoff centered on immigration enforcement: after a fatal January shooting in Minneapolis, Democrats withheld support unless new limits were placed on immigration enforcement, while Republicans agreed only to measures such as body cameras and rejected broader warrant requirements.
During the lapse, most of the department's work is excepted and continues: border protection, Transportation Security Administration screening, customs processing of imports and exports, Coast Guard operations, and Secret Service protection all carry on, with employees in those functions working without pay until funding is restored. Under the department's September 2025 lapse contingency plan, about 8.4 percent of DHS personnel were to be furloughed, while planning, research and development, auditing, and most policy and administrative work cease. The fee-funded U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is not significantly affected, and the reconciliation law enacted in 2025 provided multi-year funding for components including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.
It is the department's third funding lapse of the fiscal year. The Congressional Research Service notes it is also only the second time in the department's history that DHS was the sole department operating under a continuing resolution. Both chambers of Congress were in recess and were scheduled to return to Washington on February 23, when funding negotiations were set to resume.
Source: Congressional Research Service
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于美国华盛顿的美国国土安全部总部园区航拍（资料照片）。美国海岸警卫队摄，公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons；联邦固定图库标准图。 / Photo: Aerial view of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security headquarters campus in Washington, D.C. (file photo). U.S. Coast Guard photo, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; federal fixed-library image.
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