The U.S. government partially shut down early Saturday, despite the Senate passing a funding deal hours earlier.
The Senate — by a vote of 71-29 — approved a package of five bills, plus a two-week stopgap measure that gives lawmakers more time to work out disputes over funding for the Department of Homeland Security.
But the House of Representatives must also vote to approve the final version of the deal, and it isn’t scheduled to return to Washington until Monday. So the federal government entered what is likely to be a short shutdown, following the record 43-day shutdown last year.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said on a House GOP conference call earlier Friday afternoon that he will back the Senate-passed funding deal in light of President Donald Trump’s support for it, MS NOW reported.
Johnson said he hopes the House will pass the bill Monday, according to MS NOW. Once it is approved by the House, the spending package will be sent to Trump to sign.
Congressionally approved appropriations expired on Saturday for bills funding the Departments of State, Defense, Financial Services, Homeland Security, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, Education, Housing and Urban Development and related agencies and programs.
U.S. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, in a memo sent Friday, told federal agency heads that their employees “should report to work for their next regularly scheduled tour of duty to undertake orderly shutdown activities.”
“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,” he added.
The Senate agreement stripped out funding for the Department of Homeland Security and included five other bills to appropriate money for government agencies.
The deal called for DHS, which has been the target of scathing criticism by Democrats over its aggressive immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota, to be temporarily funded by a stopgap measure, with the question of long-term funding to be revisited later.
The deal had stalled in the Senate as a few Republican holdouts kept lawmakers from quickly considering the package.
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham earlier Friday refused to lift the hold he placed on the measure unless he was “guaranteed a vote” on his bill to criminalize so-called sanctuary city policies.
Graham wanted to impose criminal penalties on state and local officials “who willfully interfere with the enforcement of federal immigration laws.”
He also wanted an amendment to address the so-called Arctic Frost investigation by then-special counsel Jack Smith. That amendment would have required officials to notify senators if their phone records are obtained in a criminal investigation.
The House last week included language in the spending package to repeal a law that would have allowed senators to sue for up to $500,000 if their phone records were obtained during Arctic Frost. Graham criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., for the move.
Trump, in a Truth Social post on Thursday, encouraged lawmakers to support the deal that would fund most of the federal government through the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30.
Senate leaders had planned a vote on the agreement for Thursday night, but Graham’s hold scuttled that effort.
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