2026 United States federal government shutdown

At 12:01 AM Eastern Standard Time on January 31, 2026, the federal government of the United States shut down as Congress failed to pass appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year.

To end the 2025 United States federal government shutdown, Congress successfully passed full-year appropriations bills for military construction and veterans affairs, the legislative branch, and the Department of Agriculture. In January 2026, Congress passed bipartisan full-year appropriations bills for the Interior and Environment; Commerce, Justice, and science (including NASA and the National Science Foundation); and Energy and water development activities of the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of the Interior.

Later in January, Congress reached an agreement to pass three bills to fund the rest of the government.^[a] The bills successfully passed the House in three votes on January 22, 2026. However, the agreement collapsed following the killing of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on January 24, 2026. Democrats announced they would no longer support Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bill, which funds CBP.

After a week of negotations, on January 29, 2026, Democrats and Republicans reached an agreement to separate the DHS funding bill, and pass a package containing the other five bills plus a two-week continuing resolution for DHS. The agreement passed the Senate in a 71–29 vote on January 30, 2026.

Afterwards, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson announced that the House would not vote on the revised agreement until Monday, February 2, 2026. As a result, the Office of Management and Budget said they would begin shutdown procedures at midnight on Saturday, January 31, when funding ran out.

Article One of the United States Constitution vests the U.S. Congress with the authority to appropriate funds drawn from the Treasury.^[1]: 1 Since 1977, the federal budget process has used a fiscal year that runs from October 1 to September 30 of the following year, with 12 individual spending bills that must be passed.^[1]: 12 Political polarization has affected this process, often forcing lawmakers to pass continuing resolutions to temporarily fund the government.^[2]

The failure of Congress to agree on funding legislation leads to a government shutdown when the previous funding term ends.^[1]: 28-29 In a government shutdown, federal agencies continue work categorized as “essential“, but federal employees and contractors are furloughed and not immediately paid. The authority to determine the work that continues is vested in the director of the Office of Management and Budget, although the president has broad authority over this process.^[3]

During the summer of 2025, House Republicans, passed three partisan spending bills, mostly along party lines.^[4] However, none of the bills passed the Senate, which requires 60 votes, necessitating the support of some Democrats, to avoid a government shutdown.^[5]

To avert a government shutdown, House Republicans unveiled a continuing resolution to keep the government funded under current spending levels until November 21. Republicans called the proposal a clean continuing resolution, lacking partisan policy riders. The resolution also includes $30 million for lawmaker security.^[6] Democrats criticized the proposal because it lacked extensions for Affordable Care Act tax credits.^[7] The bill passed the House but only received three Democratic votes (Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, John Fetterman of Pennyslvania and Angus King of Maine) in the Senate, resulting in the bill failing to surpass a 60-vote Democratic fillibuster.^[8] Without an agreement, government funding expired after midnight on October 1, 2025, triggering a government shutdown.^[9]

On November 9, 2025, after negotiations between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans, a deal was revealed to end the shutdown. The agreement would include a continuing resolution that would fund the government until the end of January, and full-year appropriations bills for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, military construction, and the Legislative Branch.

The full-year bills include $203.5 million to fund security for members of Congress and $852 million for US Capitol Police. In addition, the continuing resolution guarantees that federal employees who faced lay-offs during the shutdown be rehired and granted backpay. It would additionally bar the Office of Management and Budget from implementing mass layoffs of federal workers throughout the length of the continuing resolution.^[7][10] The deal also guarantees a vote in the Senate to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies. The agreement passed both the House and the Senate, and was signed into law by President Trump, thus ending the shutdown, on November 12, 2025.^[11]

In addition of the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, military construction, and legislative branch funding that passed to end the 2025 Government Shutdown, funding for Interior and Environment; Commerce, Justice, and science (including NASA and the National Science Foundation); and Energy and water development activities of the Army Corps of Engineers and Department of the Interior was passed in January 2026.^[12]

Later in January, the House and Senate reached agreements to pass the final three appropriations bills needed to avoid a partial government shutdown. These three bills passed the House on January 22, 2026.^[13][14]

However, following the killing of Alex Pretti by Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents on January 24, 2026, Democrats in the Senate announced they would no longer support the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bill, which funds CPB.^[15]

On January 29, 2026, the Senate failed to advance the government funding package in a 45–55 vote. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in opposing the bill. Most of the Republicans voting against the bill were fiscal conservatives, including Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, Mike Lee of Utah, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Rick Scott and Ashley Moody of Florida. Unlike the Democrats, these Republicans are seeking more funding cuts and are generally opposed to a new deal between Republicans and Democrats for Homeland Security funding.^[16]

Later that day, a deal was announced in the Senate to separate the DHS funding bill, and pass a package containing the other five bills plus a two-week continuing resolution for DHS. Passage was briefly delayed by a hold placed by Senator Lindsey Graham, who opposed repeal of a provision allowing senators to sue over phone records collected during the Arctic Frost investigation, and the lack of full-year DHS appropriations. Graham removed the hold in return for votes on legislation to criminalize refusal of state and local officials to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, and to expand eligibility of those investigated by Jack Smith to sue the Department of Justice.^[17][18] On January 30, the bill passed the Senate 71–29.^[19]

After passing the Senate, Speaker of House Mike Johnson said the House would not take up the bill until Monday, February 2, 2026. As a result, Office of Management and Budget said they would begin shutdown procedures at midnight on Saturday, January 31, when funding ran out.^[20]

Mike Johnson announced that Republicans would look to pass the bill through a suspension of the rules. In a regular rule vote, which is generally a party line vote, a small number of fiscally conservative Republicans upset at the deal could stop the bills passage by voting down the procedural rule vote. Under suspension of the rules, a two-thirds majority is needed to pass bills, requiring a large number of Democrats to also vote for the agreement along with Republicans. Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has not yet endorsed the agreement. Democrat Greg Casar of Texas, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, announced his opposition to the package. Republican Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, a fiscal conservative, threatened to oppose the bill if it was not coupled with legislation to require proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections.^[21][22]