US government shuts down partially over homeland security funding

Funding lapsed for several US government departments on Saturday, the result of a standoff in Congress over new restrictions on federal agents involved in Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign following the killings of two US citizens in Minneapolis.The partial government shutdown is the result of Democratic senators refusing to vote for a bill authorizing continued spending by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), after federal agents killed Alex Pretti in Minnesota’s largest city last week, and Renee Good earlier in January. The minority party’s blockade imperiled a push by Republicans for approval of larger package of legislation funding other departments, which needed to pass the Senate before the government’s spending authorization expired Friday.Democrats are demanding that the DHS funding bill be rewritten to include new restrictions on federal agents, following the killings of Good and Pretti, which came amid a surge of immigration agents Trump ordered into Minnesota’s largest city.On Friday, the Senate passed a package of five measures to fund government departments through September, as well as a bill to continue DHS operations for two weeks. However the legislation must be approved by the House of Representatives, which is expected to convene on Monday.The shutdown’s impact remains unclear, and is unlikely to be felt until at least Monday, the first business day when it will be in effect. Besides the homeland security department, Congress had not yet fully passed appropriations for the departments of defense, education, labor, health and human services, transportation and housing and urban development. Trump has indicated that he would sign the spending package, blessed by his White House, when it reaches his desk.In a memo published on Friday, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), directed affected agencies, including the departments of defense, homeland security, labor, health and human services, education, transportation, housing and urban development, national security and state to “execute plans for an orderly shutdown”.“The Administration will continue working with the Congress to address recently raised concerns to complete appropriations for Fiscal Year 2026,” Vought wrote. “It is our hope that this lapse will be short.”The Senate’s Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer says the party wants to ban officers from wearing masks and require them to wear body cameras and adhere to a code of conduct. He also wants provisions for alleged violations to be investigated independently, and a ban on “roving patrols”, where agents target people they believe are in the country unlawfully.“These are not radical demands, they’re basic standards the American people already expect from law enforcement,” Schumer said on Friday.Negotiations over those changes are expected to take place over the next two weeks.The broader funding package’s prospects in the Republican-controlled House remains unclear. Speaker Mike Johnson acknowledged on Thursday that “we could inevitably be in a short shutdown situation” before the chamber convenes on Monday. “But the House is going to do its job. We want to get the government funded, as does the president,” he said.However, Republicans control the chamber by a mere one-seat margin, holding 218 seats to the Democrats’ 213. Rightwing lawmakers have recently demanded that the appropriations bill be coupled with the Save Act, which would impose identification requirements to vote that critics say would disenfranchise swaths of Americans. Their insistence could further complicate the measures’ passage through the lower chamber.The funding lapse is unlikely to halt ICE’s deportation operations. The agency received $75bn from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year that it could use, and the Trump administration could also mandate that its employees continue working during a shutdown.The partial government shutdown comes after a record 43-day funding lapse that began in October, after Democrats insisted that any government funding measure be paired with an extension of tax credits that reduced premiums for Affordable Care Act health plans.A group of seven moderate Democratic senators eventually joined with the GOP to reopen the government, in exchange for a promise from John Thune, the Senate majority leader, for a vote on a measure extending the tax credits. Republicans blocked the legislation when the vote took place, and the subsidies expired at the end of 2025.