Government shutdown 2026 starts with weekend lapse as DHS and ICE fight drags on

A partial government shutdown began at 12:01 a.m. ET on Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026, after Congress missed a funding deadline while negotiations over Homeland Security policy and ICE funding remained unresolved. The Senate cleared a bipartisan plan late Friday, but the House did not act before leaving town, turning what leaders hoped would be a paperwork finish into a live shutdown — at least through the weekend.

For anyone asking “is the government shutting down again,” “is there a government shutdown,” or “is the government shut down,” the answer this morning is yes in part: a lapse is in effect, and the practical next step is a House vote expected when lawmakers return on Monday, Feb. 2 (ET).

Government shutdown 2026: where things stand

The current lapse is not a full stop of every federal function. It is a gov shutdown driven by expiring appropriations, with many essential services continuing and many workers either furloughed or required to report without pay until funding is restored.

Here is the core timeline and what is actually on the table:

If you’re searching “senate vote today” or “senate vote” for Jan. 31, the decisive Senate action already happened on Friday, Jan. 30 (ET). The next decisive votes shift to the House, then back to the Senate later if DHS talks break down again.

Did the government shut down today?

Yes — did the government shutdown today is effectively true for Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026 (ET), because the lapse started just after midnight. In plainer terms, did the government shutdown and did the government shut down both describe what happened overnight: appropriations lapsed and a partial shutdown began.

The most immediate impacts are concentrated inside agencies whose funding was not enacted before the deadline. Early guidance indicates departments such as Defense, State, Treasury, Transportation, Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, and DHS are among those affected, while many functions deemed essential continue.

That’s why “shutdown” can look uneven: air security and traffic systems keep running, Social Security checks still go out, and many public-facing operations try to stay open at least briefly — but large parts of the federal workforce can be idled, and contractors often feel effects quickly.

Senate Democrats, ICE funding, and the Minneapolis flashpoint

This shutdown fight is not just about topline spending. The flashpoint is the senate vote on ice funding and whether DHS — and specifically immigration enforcement — gets long-term money without new restrictions.

The political break escalated after the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis during a protest, following an earlier Minneapolis incident that left another U.S. citizen dead. Those events hardened positions and pushed many Democrats into a unified demand for new guardrails, turning senate democrats government shutdown chatter into a real negotiating strategy rather than a threat.

The reforms under discussion have centered on issues like agent identification, limits on certain enforcement tactics, and independent oversight mechanisms. The Senate’s compromise tried to separate two conflicts: fund most of government through the fiscal year, and give DHS only a short extension to keep talks going.

Where Trump, Schumer, King, and Suozzi fit

The White House has backed the Senate’s compromise framework, making this Donald Trump government shutdown episode less about a presidential veto threat and more about congressional timing and internal party dynamics.

On Capitol Hill, Chuck Schumer has framed the two-week DHS window as leverage to force enforceable limits before Democrats provide the votes typically needed to pass major funding bills in the Senate. Angus King, who caucuses with Democrats, publicly signaled he would not support long-term DHS funding without changes, strengthening the bloc demanding separation of DHS from the broader package.

In the House, immigration politics have also scrambled member positioning. Tom Suozzi, one of the Democrats who supported a DHS funding bill earlier in January, later acknowledged backlash and expressed regret as the Minneapolis incidents reshaped the debate.

Meanwhile, Senate veterans such as Mitch McConnell are not central to the day-to-day talks in public, but their presence underscores how much the chamber’s center of gravity has shifted: the pressure point is now DHS policy terms rather than a simple spending-number dispute.

What happens next, and will the government shutdown again?

The government shutdown update to watch is the House floor schedule on Monday, Feb. 2 (ET). If the House passes the Senate package quickly and it is signed, the weekend lapse could end fast — a scenario often described as a govt shutdown that disrupts processes more than daily life.

The bigger risk is mid-February. The two-week DHS extension sets up another cliff. If negotiations over DHS and ICE restrictions fail, lawmakers could face a repeat question: will the government shutdown again — or, for searchers using variants like shutdown 2026, gov shutdown 2026, government shut down, us government shutdown, us government shutdown 2026, government shutdown, and shutdown 2026 — whether a second lapse hits when DHS funding runs out.

Even if most agencies reopen next week, the DHS deadline means the underlying fight may simply move from “is the government shut down” to “how soon is the next shutdown threat.”

Sources consulted: Reuters; The Wall Street Journal; TIME; ABC News; The Washington Post; Congress.gov