January 21, 2026
Is the government shutting down in nine days or not?
Well – at this point – we don’t know for sure because the House and Senate have not voted yet on a massive funding bill. If the House and Senate pass that bill the government will stay open. If they don’t it’ll shut down. So far – congress has passed 6 of the 12 required bills but now they have to pass the last six. And those six lay out the budgets for government departments like health and human services, labor, “housing and urban development,” transportation, education, and homeland security.
And it’s homeland security that’s going to determine whether this massive bill passes or not. Why? Because homeland security is the department that oversees ice. Democrats say ICE does not need any more money – especially given the way ICE officers are behaving on the streets in places like Minnesota. But Republicans and the Trump administration say ICE should have more money to not only continue but ramp up those operations throughout the country. It’s important to clarify — the money I’m talking about in this bill– is just the regular budget allocation congress gives the department of homeland security ever single year. Don’t forget – this annual money is on top of the $191 billion dollars of extra funding the Republicans gave homeland security when they passed the big beautiful bill. $75 billion of that went directly to ice.
So the question is – what’s actually in this annual budget bill for homeland security? According to the lawmakers in charge of the deal – it provides $18 billion dollars for custom and border protection including $513 million to fund 22,000 border patrol agent and $40 million for technology. It allocates $10 billion dollars specifically for ICE including nearly $4 billion to fund operations to detain and deport “all criminal and removable aliens.” It eliminates funding for the homeland security’s civil rights and civil liberties office and reduces funding for the office of citizenship and immigration services.
So let me put that ice funding into context for you – yes $10 billion sounds like a lot but that’s the same funding level ice received last fiscal year. This bill also puts some guardrails on that $191 billion the Republicans gave homeland security in the big beautiful bill. This annual funding bill requires DHS to provide monthly updates on how that money is being spent – before — that was not explicitly outlined. The democrats who worked with republicans to craft this deal say this bill allocates $20 million that must be used for the purchase and operation of body cameras for ICE and CPB officers when they are engaged in operations with the public. And it directs DHS to train all ICE and CBP officers on de-escalation tactics and on citizen’s rights to record any interaction with those officers.
Now – the political reality is this. Yes — the vast majority of House Democrats say this is nowhere near enough and they are going to vote no. They want more money taken away from ICE and homeland security and they want more guardrails put on secretary Kristi Noem and her department. However! Democrats are not the majority in either the House or the Senate so it is very likely that even if all of the House Democrats vote no this bill it is still going to pass. That vote is scheduled to happen tomorrow before the House leaves for their weeklong recess. Next week, the Senate will return from their recess and it’ll be on them to pass this very same bill before January 30th. If not – the government will shutdown.
Republican interpretation of the DHS funding bill here.
Democratic interpretation of the DHS funding bill here.
Full bill text of ALL appropriations for all 6 departments here.
