DHS funding lapse ends after 76 days

On 30 April 2026 President Trump signed the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2026 (Division A of Pub. L. 119-86, carried on the vehicle H.R. 7147), ending the 76-day single-agency funding lapse that began at 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on 14 February 2026 — 76 days inclusive of the start and end dates.¹ The Senate approved the measure by unanimous consent in an overnight session shortly after 2:00 a.m. on Friday 27 March 2026 — after five failed cloture attempts on predecessor vehicles — and the House cleared the Senate-amended bill by voice vote on 30 April 2026, with the President signing the same day.²³ The enacted measure funds all of DHS except U.S. Border Patrol and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, whose funding moves on the separate reconciliation track.¹ At 76 days, the lapse is the longest single-agency funding lapse on record (surpassing the 22 December 2018-25 January 2019 partial shutdown of 35 days affecting DHS and eight other departments) and the longest federal funding lapse by duration in US history (surpassing by 33 days the 1 October-12 November 2025 43-day full shutdown).⁴ The package combines immediate DHS reopening with a two-track agreement negotiated in the Senate by Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.), Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): ICE and U.S. Border Patrol are funded separately, through the remainder of the presidential term, via a forthcoming budget-reconciliation vehicle keyed to a new FY2026 budget resolution (S. Con. Res. 33, adopted by the Senate 50-48 on 23 April 2026 and by the House 215-211 on 29 April 2026, with reconciliation instructions to the Judiciary and Homeland Security committees capped at a $70 billion deficit increase over FY2026-2035).⁵

1. The reconciliation procedure under § 310 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, 2 U.S.C. § 641, limits Senate debate to 20 hours and bars a filibuster, permitting passage with a simple majority; the Byrd Rule under § 313, 2 U.S.C. § 644, separately constrains extraneous matter and provides a 60-vote point of order against provisions that do not produce a change in outlays or revenues, that increase the deficit outside the budget window, or that fall outside the jurisdiction of the reporting committee.⁶ The Senate Parliamentarian rules on Byrd-Rule challenges raised by senators on the floor.

2. Excepted DHS personnel who worked through the lapse under 31 U.S.C. § 1342 and furloughed personnel who did not both receive retroactive pay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, Pub. L. 116-1, codified at 31 U.S.C. § 1341 note, “at the employee’s standard rate of pay, at the earliest date possible after the lapse in appropriations ends”; activities funded outside annual appropriations (USCIS premium-processing fee accounts under 8 U.S.C. § 1356; the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund’s multi-year balance) operated as “exempt” throughout. Federal contractors are not federal employees within the meaning of Pub. L. 116-1 and have no equivalent statutory entitlement to retroactive payment.⁷⁸ DHS components resumed full operations within four hours of the presidential signature under OMB Circular A-11 § 124 contingency-plan procedures.⁹

3. With the DHS bill enacted, all twelve FY2026 regular appropriations bills are enacted: MilCon-VA, Agriculture- FDA, Legislative Branch (12 November 2025); Commerce- Justice-Science, Energy-Water Development, Interior- Environment (23 January 2026); Defense, Labor-HHS-Education, Financial Services and General Government, State-Foreign Operations, T-HUD (3 February 2026); and Homeland Security (30 April 2026).¹⁰ The next funding cliff is the 1 October 2026 start of FY2027.