In brief: The law that ended the 2025 shutdown funded most agencies only through January 30, 2026. Congress finished the remaining bills in stages. One deadline was missed briefly in early February, and Homeland Security—the last unfinished bill—went without appropriations from February 14 to April 30.
How FY2026 funding was finished
| Date | Law | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| Nov. 12, 2025 | P.L. 119-37 | Ended the 43-day shutdown; full-year Agriculture, Legislative Branch, and Military Construction-VA; everything else through Jan. 30 |
| Jan. 23, 2026 | H.R. 6938 | Full-year Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy-Water, and Interior-Environment |
| Feb. 3, 2026 | P.L. 119-75 | Ended the multi-department lapse; five more full-year bills; DHS extended through Feb. 13 |
| Apr. 30, 2026 | P.L. 119-86 | Ended the DHS lapse; funded DHS except ICE and Border Patrol accounts |
| June 10, 2026 | P.L. 119-98 | Funded CBP, ICE, and the DHS Office of the Secretary, with multiyear availability |
Sources: CRFB FY2026 appropriations watch; P.L. 119-75 enacted text; CRS R49427.
January 31–February 3: a short, multi-department lapse
When the January 30 deadline passed, the departments covered by the bills still pending—including Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Transportation-HUD, State, Treasury, and Homeland Security—lost appropriations over a weekend. Agencies funded by bills already enacted in November and January were unaffected. The House passed the package 217–214 and the President signed it on February 3 as P.L. 119-75, enacting five full-year bills and extending DHS to February 13 (NAICU summary).
Because most of it fell on a weekend, the lapse had limited public effect, but it was not limited to DHS. We corrected an earlier description of it on our corrections page.
February 14–April 30: the DHS shutdown
Homeland Security was the only bill left. Negotiations focused on Immigration and Customs Enforcement and border-security funding, and the DHS extension expired February 13. From February 14, DHS alone was in a lapse while the rest of the government operated normally under enacted full-year appropriations. That made it a textbook partial shutdown.
Most DHS work is excepted—border protection, TSA screening, Coast Guard operations, and Secret Service protection continued—so the main effect was unpaid work rather than closures:
- TSA: screeners worked without pay until a March 27 executive order directed that TSA employees be paid (Federal News Network).
- Coast Guard: about 56,000 members went without pay until the April 30 law—unlike the 2025 lapse, when Coast Guard pay was covered with other funds (Maritime Executive).
- Immigration services: fee-funded USCIS largely continued; appropriations-dependent DHS programs and grants slowed. See immigration and DHS during a shutdown.
By late March, the DHS lapse had passed the 43-day 2025 shutdown as the longest funding gap for any part of the government. P.L. 119-86 restored appropriations on April 30 for DHS components other than ICE and Border Patrol, which were funded by P.L. 119-98 on June 10.
Why the day counts differ
The House historian lists the DHS lapse as 76 days, counting February 14 through April 30. Other counts use complete days without appropriations and arrive at 75. We show the House figure in our history table and label it separately from CRS full-day counts.
What 2026 means for the next deadline
- Bills move separately. When Congress finishes appropriations in pieces, one unfinished bill can shut down one department. Follow each bill in the FY2027 tracker.
- Excepted work is not paid work. Services that keep running can still depend on employees who are not being paid, and attrition grows with length.
- Pay workarounds vary. Military and Coast Guard pay was covered in 2025 but not for the Coast Guard in 2026; TSA pay changed mid-lapse by executive order.