January 15, 2026
We are just 15 days away from a government shutdown. Couple things you should know –one –both the House and Senate have recesses scheduled in the next two weeks – so really there are only a few legislative days to pass a bill to stop this looming shutdown. And two– what’s happening with ICE across the country is impacting the ability of lawmakers to make a deal to stop the government shutdown.
Let’s start with the calendar and the timing. The government is scheduled to shut down again on January 30th. Sure – that’s 15 days away for normal people. But congress isn’t normal people. The Senate is leaving today for a 10 day recess. And then the House will be on recess the entire last week of January. Of course the recess schedule can change – but if it doesn’t that means the House has five working days to pass a bill to keep the government open and the Senate will have five days to pass that same bill to keep the government open. And those five days do not overlap. So if there are any differences between the two funding bills – the government shuts down. Can a government shutdown be avoided? Sure. It’s definitely possible that the House will pass their spending bills next week and hopefully the Senate loves it and passes the exact same spending bills when they come back to Washington DC the week after. President Trump signs it and boom. No shutdown. But if the Senate doesn’t like what the House passes and instead – passes something else – all bets are off because the house won’t be there to vote again on the senate version. Right? Both chambers need to pass the same bill in order to avoid a shutdown. So that’s issue number one.
Now let’s move on the other issue which is ICE. President Trump’s immigration enforcement efforts across the country are causing a major divide on Capitol Hill. Of course the government shutdown is all about funding for the federal government. Without congress passing multiple bills that approve that funding – the government shuts down. Now — since the last government shutdown congress has been moving through the process of passing funding bills for several government departments. No problem. But one of the funding bills that still hasn’t passed is the funding bill for homeland security. Of course homeland security is the agency that operates ice. The Trump administration is asking Congress to approve more money for ICE – so the president can continue and expand this massive nationwide ice operation. Democrats are like absolutely not. They say ICE does not need anymore money and furthermore – lawmakers should demand that any new funding bill for ICE must include some kind of accountability for ice and the way those officers are conducting themselves on the streets of America. Well – republicans are like absolutely not. So Democrats have choice. They can do what they did in the Fall and withhold votes unless Republicans cave on ICE funding and accountability. Republicans are not going to do that so we would absolutely see another government shutdown. Or – what’s more likely to happen is – Democrats could agree to join Republicans and pass a year-long continuing resolution for just the Homeland Security part of the bill which would keep funding for DHS and ICE at the same level as it is right now. No decrease but no increase either.
Now – let us not forget – as I reported over the summer – Homeland Security and ICE already got a massive influx of money when the Republicans – on their own — passed Trump’s big beautiful bill. In fact — in that bill Republicans included the largest single increase of *additional* funding for Homeland Security in history. Republicans gave Homeland Security a whopping $191 billion additional dollars on top of Homeland Security’s regular funding levels. See that’s why Democrats are like Homeland Security has enough money they don’t need any more. By the way that $191 billion dollars includes $75 billion dollars for ICE. So if you feel like there are more ICE agents on the streets you’re right. There are and that’s because the when the Republicans passed the big beautiful bill they gave the department all kinds of money to hire more agents, to give them huge signing bonuses, to buy more vehicles and technology and build more detention facilities.
Bottom line – are we going to see another government shutdown at the end of the month? Maybe? Or maybe not.
More on ICE funding in Big Beautiful Bill here.
