Concerns about DHS Risk Triggering Partial Government Shutdown

While the situation around FY26 final spending measures remains very fluid, there are negotiations ongoing between Congressional and Administration leaders amid the fallout from recent fatal shootings in Minneapolis. However, time is very short before the expiration of the current continuing resolution (CR) on January 30, and, at this point, it seems likely that there will be a partial government shutdown—although potentially a very short one.

As a reminder, six of the twelve annual spending bills have been enacted into law, including the Commerce-Justice-Science bill that funds NSF, NOAA, NASA, and NIST and the bill that funds the Department of Energy. These agencies would not be affected by any possible shutdown. That said, full-year funding for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Defense, and Homeland Security (and others) is part of the six-bill package that was approved by the House last week and failed a test vote in the Senate this afternoon, with Democratic and several Republican Senators opposing passage in an effort to continue negotiations about ICE funding and reform.

Although the White House initially rejected an early plan to strip the DHS portion out and pass the rest of the package, the administration recently signaled some openness to this plan, which would include a short-term CR for DHS to allow more time to negotiate potential reforms. At this time, it is unclear whether it will have the support of the House, which would have to approve any modifications to the package before it is sent to the President to be signed into law. The House is currently out of session and not scheduled to return to DC until next week, but could be called back early if an agreement is struck.

We are following the situation closely and will provide further updates as more details comes together.