Despite the Senate’s passage of a bill to fund the government on Jan. 30, the House won’t return to vote on the measure until Monday.
WASHINGTON—The federal government entered a partial government shutdown just after midnight on Saturday despite the Senate’s passage of legislation hours earlier to prevent it.
The shutdown—affecting the departments of Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Homeland Security—is expected to only last the weekend, with a House vote to reopen the government scheduled for Monday.
With that House vote not scheduled until 6:30 p.m. local time on Monday, nonessential federal employees in those departments will likely be furloughed for the day despite expectations that the amended deal will pass. That’s because federal law requires the government to carry out shutdown procedures once funding for an agency has officially lapsed.
The Senate passed the altered funding package in a 71–29 vote on Friday evening following hours of hurried negotiations on Capitol Hill involving members of both parties.
Under the new legislation, full-year funding will be authorized for all agencies in the package except the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Instead, the legislation punts the deadline for this funding forward two weeks to give lawmakers time to work through negotiations to amend the full-year funding for the agency.
The vote came less than a day after Democrats and the White House announced the deal. After the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota, Senate Democrats said they would not support funding for DHS without changes to certain immigration enforcement practices.
Trump urged Congress to pass the bipartisan compromise.
“Republicans and Democrats in Congress have come together to get the vast majority of the Government funded until September, while at the same time providing an extension to the Department of Homeland Security (including the very important Coast Guard, which we are expanding and rebuilding like never before),” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Jan. 29. “Hopefully, both Republicans and Democrats will give a very much needed Bipartisan ‘YES’ Vote.”
Senate Democrats, led by Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced three demands on Jan. 28 regarding DHS and ICE operations.
